Cosmopolitics by Elise Labott

Cosmopolitics by Elise Labott

Trump's Iran trap

A tactical success may force the president into choices he desperately wants to avoid

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Elise Labott
Jun 23, 2025
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The deception was flawless. While Iranian negotiators prepared for nuclear talks in Geneva, believing Trump's public deadline gave them "two weeks" to cut a deal, six B-2 bombers were already racing toward Iran carrying the most destructive conventional weapons in America's arsenal.

It was, in the words of one Trump adviser speaking to Axios, "a headfake…

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