Last week we crossed the 100-day mark of Donald Trump’s foolish and strategically incompetent war of choice with Iran. Now, the administration is announcing yet another settlement that will leave the U.S., and most of the rest of the world, in a worse situation than before the war.
The Bulwark explains:
The text of the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding was digitally signed on Monday. But it still has not been released. Until that happens—and, frankly, even after it does—both sides will be spinning wildly. U.S. officials will claim Iran has made specific concessions on its nuclear program. Iranian media outlets have and will allude to massive sanctions relief.
But the overall framework of the MOU is clear on certain points: The ceasefire will be extended by sixty days; the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened in both directions; Iran will receive some sanctions relief; and negotiations will begin on restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. …
For the United States, getting the Strait of Hormuz open was the most important outcome. Already oil prices are responding with a modest decline. … Of course, the strait was open before the war. Now we are paying to reopen it with sanctions relief. And Iran will attempt to derive additional revenue by imposing transit fees. Worse, Iran has taken a theoretical point of leverage and turned it into a very real and powerful one, imposing costs across the global economy that it now knows will rattle President Trump.
This cannot be understood as anything other than a disastrous and unnecessary own-goal for Donald Trump. He has acted directly against two of his biggest campaign promises—not involving the U.S. in foreign wars, and improving the economy—and has, additionally, further undermined the America-led world order. Getting out before he does even more damage is probably the right decision, but this whole mess is entirely self-inflicted.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
© The UnPopulist, 2026
Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.