“No other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes…” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/u...
Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran
nytimes.com
Jeffrey Prescott
@jeffreyprescott.bsky.social
Senior fellow @carnegieendowment.org. Former US Ambassador to the UN in Rome, State, NSC, WH. Personal account.
“The consequences of the Iran conflict, which are already being felt in the region, will reverberate globally as an exacerbated food crisis swells.” www.cfr.org/articles/the...
The Iran War’s Hidden Front: Food, Water, and Fertilizer | Council on Foreign Relations
While world energy markets are in upheaval over the halt in fossil fuel shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, there is also a brewing crisis over a sharp cutback in food supplies that normally transi...
cfr.org
"The idea of making difficult trade-offs — sacrificing this for the greater good of that; denying instant gratification for larger future gain — is as foreign to Trump as Mongolian... Such a person gets bored very easily — bored of reading, bored of listening, bored of thinking and bored of peace."
Bored of peace
The idea of making difficult trade-offs is alien to Trump
ft.com
“Top Trump officials acknowledged to lawmakers during recent classified briefings that they did not plan for the possibility of Iran closing the strait in response to strikes…” www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/p...
Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz | CNN Politics
The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, accord...
cnn.com
NEW: Before the Iran War, Trump ignored warnings that Iran could retaliate across the region and stop oil shipments. Now, with energy markets in chaos, some aides are pessimistic about the lack of a strategy to end the war. But they haven't told Trump. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u...
How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War
nytimes.com
@colinkahl.bsky.social on Trump's utter lack of clarity of purpose in Iran: "Wars are not judged by how well they start. They are judged by how they end—and by whether the country that started the fight is stronger or weaker when the guns finally go quiet." www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/what-en...
What Is the Endgame in Iran?
Trump needs to figure out what he wants—and quickly.
foreignaffairs.com
"Vile as the Iranian regime is ... it did not pose an imminent danger to the American people. Mr. Trump’s war, however, does create immediate and acute risks to American civilians in the region."
Opinion | How Trump Betrayed His First Duty to Americans
nytimes.com
New York Times Opinion@nytopinion.nytimes.com · 5mo ago“The argument that the administration did not anticipate the scale of Iran’s military response displays willful, perhaps intentional, ignorance,” write Jeffrey Feltman and Mara Karlin.
“Trump appears strangely uncertain about where the war is heading. ‘The worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person,’ Trump mused on Tuesday…seeming to be considering this very real possibility for the first time. ‘It would probably be the worst.’”
Lydia Polgreen@polgreen.bsky.social · 5mo agoI wrote about Trump's fantasy of omnipotence and invulnerability crashing against the material reality of a interdependent world. This insane, heedless war will ruin us all. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/o...
“The contrast between Washington’s near-unlimited willingness to compromise and demonstrate patience when it comes to persuading Russia to end its aggression against Ukraine and its unrealistic demands and lack of patience with Iran in the run-up to this war is as stark as it is telling.”
America chose this war — and must now choose how to end it
However this conflict concludes, the US and Iran’s new leaders will have to revisit the same issues that sparked hostilities
giftarticle.ft.com
“This war started at a time of our choosing,” said Yael Lempert, a career diplomat who served as ambassador to Jordan in the Biden administration. “It should have come as no surprise that airspace would close, and commercial flight options would be curtailed.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/u...
State Department Is Accused of Slow Assistance for Stranded Americans
nytimes.com
Trump’s plan for Iran, in two phone calls yesterday: NYT: [W]hen asked whom he wanted to lead Iran, he said, “I have three very good choices.” He added: “I won’t be revealing them now. Let’s get the job done first.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/u...
Trump Says War Could Last Weeks and Offers Contradictory Visions of New Regime
nytimes.com
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death at the hand of a nation he worked very hard to kill is a hinge moment in the history of Iran’s revolution, Karim Sadjadpour argues. theatln.tc/rGrjs2Wh
“Who wants this? Nobody wants this,” said [Aaron David] Miller at the @carnegieendowment.org “We’re sleepwalking towards a war, in search of a strategy.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... ‘Crisis of his own making’: Donald Trump weighs another war with Iran
‘Crisis of his own making’: Donald Trump weighs another war with Iran
The US military build-up was designed to coerce Tehran — but has failed
giftarticle.ft.com
Thomas Wright: "What exactly has changed since June that justifies a more extreme course of action now? Until that question is addressed, the case for urgency, and for war, does not add up." www.theatlantic.com/internationa...
America Doesn’t Need a Deal or a War With Iran
Why the rush, when Washington has all the leverage?
theatlantic.com
“Military operations look quick and easy — right until they are not,” said @jkdemp.bsky.social. “What we did in Venezuela was such a unique operation, and a one-off. And even that — I’m not sure it will turn out fine.” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Trump appears ready to attack Iran as U.S. strike force takes shape
Although the United States and ally Israel have a military advantage over Iranian forces, there are ways for Tehran to make any attack painful, officials said.
washingtonpost.com
Congratulations to @nancygoodman.bsky.social for all the hard work getting the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act over the finish line. If you are not familiar (and even if you are) this is worth a read: www.thebulwark.com/p/pediatric-...
Pediatric Cancer Bill Torpedoed by Elon, Rand, and Bernie Finally Passes
It had broad bipartisan support but passage still required years of heartbreaking lobbying by extraordinarily dedicated children.
thebulwark.com
Major efforts in policy and diplomacy to address the fentanyl crisis in the United States have begun to see a remarkable decline in overdose cases. @jeffreyprescott.bsky.social discusses this milestone: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...
Foreign Policy Outcomes Can Be Hard to Measure. This One Isn’t.
A new study found that a combination of policy and diplomatic focus contributed to a dramatic shift in fentanyl-related overdose deaths.
carnegieendowment.org
It is rare in foreign policy to find hard proof of success. Rarer still for diplomacy to save thousands of American lives in short order. I wrote about new research here: carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...
carnegieendowment.org
Americans now spend more on Halloween candy than Trump does on feeding the starving. Gross. Sam Vigersky on Trump and Rubio's great humanitarian aid recession: cfr.org/expert-brief...
The President of the United States just called for my arrest and execution. In these moments, fear is contagious, but so is courage:
Joint Statement from Goodlander, Slotkin, Kelly, Crow, Deluzio, and Houlahan
“The international order that the United States built and maintained for decades is coming to an end, and what follows is up for grabs.” Read Jeffrey Prescott and Julian Gewirtz on China’s “new, more active diplomatic strategy”:
China Goes on Offense
Beijing’s plans to exploit American retreat.
foreignaffairs.com