How is it backing down when his threat was we’d do it if they didn’t agree to open up the strait, which is now open?

I don’t like the way he does things but we’ve seen Trump’s playbook enough to see what he does. Big threat, followed by the US getting some sort of capitulation from it. He then doesn’t follow through with the threat.

That’s not chickening out. That’s just negotiating with a big stick.

The strait is not open, Trump is pretending it is, to save face. Iran is charging $2M per ship, which will net them $90B and that is significantly higher than their oil revenue ($60B). Plus they get to keep their enriched uranium. Yes they lost some buildings and bridges but the strait fee is enough to rebuild. Iran is in a stronger position now than when the war started. TACO Trump lost the war.

> Iran is charging $2M per ship,

Iran wants to charge $2M per ship as part of it's ceasefire conditions - which will almost certainly be rejected since that would impact every ship/nation traversing these waters. Waters that are not owned by Iran.

> Plus they get to keep their enriched uranium.

There's 0% chance of that happening.

> Iran is in a stronger position now than when the war started.

All of Iran's senior leadership are dead. Most or all of the "second-string" leadership is dead. All but their ground-force military is destroyed.

So we go back to all out war and a closed straight when no agreement is made.

The leadership clearly doesn't matter as neither the regime has collapsed nor have moderates emerged.

Claims of destruction of "all" military are continually invalidated by the ongoing drone and missile strikes.

Big stick?! More like whacking himself with a big stick.

Read up on his ‘playbook’ with russia, north korea, china etc ..

> which is now open?

Is it? Iran seems to be under the impression it is subject to their control.

TACO enjoyers always come out on top.

What exactly did Trump chicken out of? He's spent a month blowing up Iran nonstop. You want him to nuke them? There isn't even anything left to nuke.

he's chickened out of getting regime change primarily.

in terms of shifting war goals, he's chickened out on getting back to the status quo from before the war.

rather than chickened out, the US is the sound loser of this war. the best outcome the US can negotiate for now is worse than what they could get before the war

Meanwhile Iran continues to blow up oil prices which is devastating for the entire world's economy, to say nothing of the USA's economy and especially Trump's popularity.

Crude oil is down 17% today alone.

Dude, they still have a huge drone force, or otherwise there would be tankers sailing

> US backed down -- TACO Trump shows up again.

It's stunning to me, that people still do not understand Trump's one-and-only playbook. He literally published a book about his one-and-only strategy all the way back in 1987 - yet people still freak out when he makes big demands then settles for more realistic options. The guy literally has used the same strategy over and over, and everyone acts like it's the first time every time.

It's also stunning to me the very same people that were losing their minds about threatened events immediately switch into "TACO" mode when those events don't happen.

In this situation, Trump made wild threats and demands if Iran didn't agree to a ceasefire. Iran initially rejected but then some 6 hours later accepted. The one-and-only playbook strikes again.

He did it with Xi Jinping but the Chinese immediately responded in kind.

Bullying only works against the weak.

What is stunning here is that some people think Trump has a reasonable strategy. What works in the business world is not the appropriate approach when working with other nations. When you threaten to kill an entire civilization, that damages US's reputation, regardless of what that threat accomplishes. Today the Pope is admonishing us and our closest partners such as UK is shunning us. US is now seen as a shit country on the level of North Korea. TACO Trump needs to be removed from office ASAP.

Even as Trump was threatening to wipe out Iran’s civilization unless Tehran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he was actively looking for a way out of the crisis. Trump then got Pakistan to post a fake plea to himself on X [1]. A few hours later Trump accepted the fake plea.

How pathetic is this!

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/world/middleeast/trump-pa...