Iran Diplomacy Has Yet to Begin || May 11, 2026
The administration’s centralized and personalized approach to foreign relations has collapsed U.S. diplomacy across multiple fronts, including stalled Iran talks, poor relations with allies, and uncertainty ahead of future negotiations with China.
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Comments (31)
China summit was pointless))) except for China. Trump gave Taiwan)))))))) China gave nothing. Art of the deal
This is the best example of international Rope-a-Dope by the Iranians in history, followed by another episode of TACO. It doesn’t get better than this.
Peter- Comment on : Opinion What a former CIA analyst reveals about a potential China fight An interview with John Culver, an authority on China’s military.
Looks like the forest behind you has been clear-cut? Very recently?
Trump Media and Tech Group recently reported and earnings LOSS, a staggering 405.9mm...filing this report: This is barely an operating-company story. Revenue was only $871k for the quarter, while cost of revenue was $1.5mm, so the company lost money at the gross profit line before even getting to corporate overhead. Then you layer on $8.4mm of R&D and nearly $38mm of G&A (General Administrative Expens), which is wildly out of proportion to the size of the actual business. That is the key issue: the operating base is tiny, but the expense structure looks like a much larger public company.
The headline loss was driven by balance-sheet volatility, not normal operations: $244mm of unrealized losses on digital assets / pledged digital assets plus another $108mm investment loss. That pushed net loss to roughly $406mm on less than $1mm of sales. Even if you strip out the asset marks, the underlying business still looks deeply uneconomic — negative gross margin, bloated overhead, rising interest expense, and no evidence that the core model can self-fund. This trades less like a company you underwrite on earnings and more like a speculative asset/financing vehicle tied to digital asset marks, capital structure, and sentiment.
(fwiw) Major execs joining Trump in China for his summit with Xi Jinping this week: * Tim Cook, Apple * Brian Sikes, Cargill * Kelly Ortberg, Boeing * Larry Fink, BlackRock * Ryan McInerney, Visa * Jane Fraser, CitiGroup * Chuck Robbins, Cisco * Jacob Thaysen, Illumina * Jim Anderson, Coherent * Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron * Elon Musk, Tesla/SpaceX * Larry Culp, General Electric * Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm * Michael Miebach, Mastercard * Dina Powell McCormick, Meta * Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone * David Solomon, Goldman Sachs
"Trump says Iran cease-fire ‘on massive life support’ — with just a ‘1% chance of living’" -NYP Pure buffoonery. Finish the job or walk. That's my opinion.
My friends and I get together once a month. The host cooks an ethnic dinner and shares. This allows for a small taste of world travel without the cost. This past weekend was my turn and I did Romanian. We are all interested in politics and have spoken on and off for years about what is going on and when Trump was re-elected how bad it would be. When he was re-elected two (2) of us were in abject terror of what he could do. Another guy, who is an extremely intelligent CPA thought it would be bad but not as bad as we were saying. This is a guy who READS all of the bills dealing with taxes and other things. He READ the entire big beautiful bill cover to cover and could understand what it really did. He is now with us about 90%. His didn't think Orange Man could do this much damage in four (4) years. We've survived others and then he'll be gone. He admits he was wrong. However, he made the point of what good did Biden do? My argument is none but at least he didn't lob grenades into our own system. I guess what I'm getting to is that there is hope. First, Orange Man is a fluke. There is no replacement for him that can sway the MAGA extremists. Once hie is gone, he has no movement so MAGA will all fall apart. Second, watching the special elections in Florida last year and MJT's special election I am predicting that anywhere the republicans don't have at least a 15 point lead they are vulnerable and will likely lose. This will flip the House and likely the Senate. Note that all of these numbers were before gas prices soared thanks to the absolute stupidity of this administration. I know I could be entirely wrong, but last night when mentioned everyone was hoping I am right. I do too.
The child abuser won’t show up in China. If China was smart they should be aware of a decapitation strike while the child abuser is in the air and they are gathered in one place
Would love for you to expand on your displeasure with Witkoff. Seeing as he’s the main negotiator on our side along with Kushner. Would be a good Premium member video perhaps
All those people were fired because they were Democrat traitors
Blue people bad. My tribe good
There are things that need to be done, and things that ought not be done. For the former, there are proper ways to do them that lead to good outcomes, and improper ways that lead to unsatisfactory outcomes. For Iran, it may be true there a need to act, but going off from half-cocked, as djt has (again) has put the world behind the 8-ball. Poor planning has led to piss-poor performance, when it might have been otherwise.
For those of you who think Trump needs to “finish the job” militarily - that will require an Iraq level Desert Storm or Afghanistan level invasion, boots on the ground, going door to door to uproot the fanatics, with a decade or longer occupation force. With a high likelihood that Iranian drones hit the mark on other Gulf State oil and gas fields and infrastructure that drastically reduces the production from the region for many years if not decades. There’s a reason no prior president “ had the balls”to get into such a misadventure.
The last two gulf wars we had wiling partners to help us. This time around the only coalition partner that will sign on is Israel. We’re essentially going it alone this time.
Correct again Peter!!!! We are very good at war but continue to lose our gains at the negotiating table. In Trump case, lack of staff input for the preparation. In Obama's case, using John Kerry as a negotiator with Iran thusly committing us to a terrible nuclear deal with Iran..... a deal that set the conditions for the current kinetic destruction of Iran's nuclear program to be necessary. A deep dive into the aftermath of Obama/Biden era policies and decisions set the groundwork for Trump.
If POTUS wants to be the world’s only 800 pound military gorilla, he must show that he will go it alone occasionally, then other countries will follow. If POTUS is willing to go it alone every time , no one will follow.
Peter, can you please elaborate on what is not coming back and why?
Maybe next time you could talk about Canada's Defence, Security & Resilience Bank (DSRB). Maybe it's theme song should be "Go your Own Way".
Canada's plan, and the USA plan, should be to tread water until Trump is gone then work very hard to mend fences and be BFF. WE need each other.
Post truth, political entrepreneurs, hyper neolibrelism (might is right), nacsastic -hollow men and women. This is the US administration and associated psychopaths. Maximum profit for them. Maximum damage for the rest of us. Some of the worst examples this species has created.
Until Trump realises that the US has its power amplified when it has allies working with it - oh what's the point, he's never going to wake up to that...
The guy has probably never had a true friend in his entire life so I doubt he has any idea what a friend and ally really is.
Popcorn is the only meaningful thing to watch out for during this s***show.
Well I disagree with one thing you. said for sure, that the strait won't get sorted out until we get meaningful diplomacy with the Iranians. Diplomacy with them will achieve nothing as they will not keep to any agreement. The Donald's incredibly stupid error was to stop bombing them and agree to a ceasefire and the only hope of opening the strait will be to finish them off to the degree that he originally promised, and assuming the Israeli's continue to kill off the people in charge until their ability to stave off an internal takeover is gone. As long as any meaningful vestige of the regime and the IRGC remains in charge, our ability to control the strait at all requires an ongoing US presence, and even then it won't be easy until they are degraded much further. He said if they FAFO'd he'd take out their energy and remaining infrastructure and then TACO'd and until that is reversed the quagmire will continue. Peter, you said some time ago that there are too many mullahs to end them but I think the Israeli's have shown over the last two years through the destruction of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the end of Syria, that they are quite capable of taking Iran off the table entirely, with US help, and I remain hopeful, despite the enormity of the ceasefire idiocy, that the Donald will finish the job. Hopeful although not certain. I know you hate the man with a passion but despite his many flaws, none of his predecessors had the guts to sort this enemy out, and if he fixes his screw-up and finishes the job, he will deserve much credit.
Well said. There are valid reasons to destroy the Iranian regime simply for the sake of future peace in the region, let alone their own people’s freedom. Here, however, I focus on previous US and British leaders’ failure to address Iranian attacks on US/UK troops: Throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, Iran’s IRGC-Quds Force waged a systematic shadow war against coalition forces. In Iraq, Tehran armed Shia militias with EFPs that killed over 600 American and numerous British troops, trained insurgent cells, and orchestrated attacks through proxies including Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Mahdi Army. In Afghanistan, Iran supplied weapons, funding, and training to Taliban and other insurgent groups despite ideological hostility, purely to bleed the coalition. Across both theatres, Soleimani’s network treated American and British servicemen as legitimate targets while Tehran maintained plausible deniability, a sustained campaign of state-sponsored killing that was never meaningfully answered. The regime deserves to be destroyed.
The closure of the strait and the removal of 25% global supply IS the point. The lack of deal is a stalling tactic to prolong the concomitant economic pain. They are shunting us into the post-growth, de-growth future long sought by globalists like Kushner, et al. Not a conspiracy. Just observable reality.
I agree - most people think the US have no plan because they see everything through an anti-Trump lense but he isnt calling the shots. Its the people around him who are (like any president) and they want the straight to remain closed.
About Iran... http://archive.today/UP4If Get past the author's priors to read a gimlet-eyed perspective of the mess in which we now find ourselves. Thanks to you know who.
Hey everybody! Look who thinks he’s a real boy that runs an self sustaining colonial state that should be on equal terms with… I can still say the world’s most sophisticated military force of all time, we’ve just had a weird few years: https://m.economictimes.com/news/defence/netanyahu-wants-to-wean-israel-off-us-military-support-he-tells-cbs/amp_articleshow/131001365.cms