{"id":645217,"date":"2026-08-02T03:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=645217"},"modified":"2026-08-02T03:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:20:00","slug":"mcglinchey-trumps-damage-to-us-diplomacy-could-last-a-generation-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=645217","title":{"rendered":"McGlinchey: Trump’s Damage To US Diplomacy Could Last A Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

McGlinchey: Trump’s Damage To US Diplomacy Could Last A Generation<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

By Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As the US-Israel war on Iran grinds into its sixth month, it\u2019s clear to all but the most intellectually-dishonest Trump loyalists and war-bent Israel-sympathizers that it\u2019s been a spectacular failure.<\/p>\n

A war of aggression that was supposed to precipitate a revolution has instead galvanized popular support of the Iranian government <\/strong>in defiance of the country\u2019s tormentors, who\u2019ve killed thousands of their fellow citizens and destroyed civilian infrastructure. A war that was launched to neutralize Israel\u2019s principal rival seems certain to leave that rival far more geopolitically powerful<\/strong> than before, while driving Americans\u2019 support for Israel to record lows.<\/p>\n

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Beyond unforgivably throwing away the lives of 18 American service members<\/strong> in an unconstitutional war launched on\u00a0false pretenses<\/a>, Trump\u2019s blunder has depleted America\u2019s arsenal and pushed the country more than\u00a0$100 billion<\/a>\u00a0deeper into debt. Meanwhile, the longer Trump delays the inevitable consummation of his defeat, the greater the risk of an economic calamity that engulfs not only the United States but the entire world.<\/p>\n

If that latter nightmare can be sidestepped, we\u2019ll likely find that Trump has inflicted his most enduring damage on an intangible yet critical national asset: the ability of American diplomats to productively engage counterparts<\/strong> all over the world. From using negotiations as a ploy for surprise attacks to murdering heads of state and casually reneging on American commitments \u2014 including his own \u2014 Trump\u2019s damage to US diplomacy will be evident for years. Of course, that\u2019s not to suggest America\u2019s foreign policy reputation was sparkling before Trump\u2019s ascension<\/strong> to power \u2014 only that he and his team have managed to drag it down to new depths.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s collaboration with Israel to launch an unprovoked war on Iran is manifestly among the worst foreign policy decisions in the history of the American republic. However, it\u2019s important to appreciate that Trump first set this 2026 disaster in motion eight years ago:<\/strong> In May 2018, \u2014 spurred on by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton and Trump\u2019s Israel-first donors \u2014 Trump withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action<\/strong>, or\u00a0JCPOA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also called the \u201cIran nuclear deal,\u201d the July 2015\u00a0JCPOA<\/a>\u00a0was the culmination of nearly two years of painstaking negotiations over highly technical provisions,<\/strong> conducted by representatives of not only the United States and Iran but also China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union.<\/p>\n

Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to major restrictions on its nuclear program<\/strong> in exchange for relief from brutal economic sanctions. Among other things, the JCPOA\u00a0required<\/a>\u00a0Iran to eliminate its medium-enriched uranium, slash its cache of low-enriched uranium by 98%, limit future enrichment to 3.67%, agree to even more external monitoring than it was already submitting to, and render its heavy-water reactor worthless by\u00a0filling it with concrete<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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Trump presents a memorandum reimposing sanctions on Iran after he withdrew from the nuclear deal at John Bolton’s urging <\/strong>(Evan Vucci\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Catering both to devoted Israel supporters and to Republicans who were eager to assume that a deal negotiated during the Obama administration must have been treasonous, Trump had repeatedly railed against the JCPOA throughout his 2016 campaign,<\/strong>\u00a0declaring<\/a>\u00a0that his \u201cnumber one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.\u201d After being named national security advisor in April 2018, Bolton \u2014 who had long been pushing for war on Iran \u2014 quickly prodded Trump into making good on his promises to tear up the JCPOA, despite the fact that Iran was\u00a0fully complying<\/a>\u00a0with the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s move demonstrates that the United States cannot be trusted to keep its promises,\u201d the Belfer Center\u2019s Martin Malin\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0at the time. \u201cIt will heighten tensions in an already smoldering Middle East while giving fodder to hardliners and nuclear bomb advocates in Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Trump\u2019s withdrawal and the reinstatement of waived sanctions, Iran waited a year, but then began straying from its own commitments<\/strong>\u00a0— using elevated uranium enrichment as a lever to push for a new agreement and relief from suffocating sanctions.<\/p>\n

Having long denied it was developing a nuclear weapon — a claim repeatedly deemed\u00a0truthful<\/a>\u00a0by the US intelligence community — Iran returned to the negotiating table during Trump\u2019s second term, once again ready to part with the uranium it had enriched to higher levels. <\/strong>Indeed, less than 48 hours before the United States and Israel attacked on Feb. 28, Iran\u00a0offered<\/a>\u00a0concessions that included dilution of its 60%-enriched uranium, a multi-year pause on new enrichment, subsequent enrichment capped at 20%, and expanded IAEA oversight. UK national security advisor Jonathan Powell was reportedly\u00a0surprised<\/a>\u00a0by the strength of the Iranian offer, seeing it as reason to hope war would be averted. His and others\u2019 hopes were about to be dashed.<\/p>\n

There are many facets of the Trump administration\u2019s assault on diplomacy, but none more vulgar than using ongoing negotiations as a means of unleashing a surprise attack<\/strong> on a negotiating partner \u2014 an attack that includes the killing of that partner\u2019s head of state.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what the Trump administration did to Iran in February. Having held a third round of talks in Geneva on Feb. 26, the two countries were set for what was\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0as technical-level discussions<\/strong> the following week. Instead, teaming up with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump launched a massive war on Iran. In addition to killing more than\u00a0100 elementary-age schoolgirls<\/a>\u00a0and many other civilians and military conscripts, the opening attack killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his daughter, son-in-law and\u00a014-month-old<\/a>\u00a0granddaughter.<\/p>\n

Rubio further diminished US credibility by attempting to characterize the surprise attack as somehow\u00a0defensive<\/a>.<\/strong> \u201cWe knew there was going to be Israeli action\u201d which would \u201cprecipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew if we didn\u2019t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties,\u201d Rubio said. Observers were quick to note that, regardless of Israel\u2019s status as a sovereign state, its dependency on Washington means Trump held de facto veto power over an Israeli strike, which makes the rest of Rubio\u2019s rationale hollow.<\/p>\n

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Marco Rubio: “We went proactively in a defensive way” pic.twitter.com\/i3XMjV0C9e<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

February wasn\u2019t the first time that insincere Trump administration diplomacy set up Iran for a surprise attack<\/strong>. In June 2025, the administration had completed five rounds of negotiations with Iran and scheduled a\u00a0sixth<\/a>\u00a0for June 15. On June 13, Israel attacked Iran. It was no surprise to Trump, who boasted that Israel\u00a0informed<\/a>\u00a0him in advance. On June 22, Trump joined the 12-Day war via Operation Midnight Hammer, bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

Beyond their fundamental immorality, these surprise attacks amid negotiations undermine long-term US interests by fostering distrust <\/strong>in everyone who witnessed such blatant American treachery. Following the start of all-out war on Feb 28, Washburn University law professor Ali Khan wrote about the consequences of turning negotiations into a \u201ccalculated ruse<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe breach of good faith signals worldwide that it is pointless to make any deal<\/strong> with someone who would do the opposite after creating an expectation or reliance for the other party. Iran or any other state would be highly reluctant to trust the Trump administration again in future negotiations.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Note, one shouldn\u2019t assume the world\u2019s distrust will be so tightly associated with Trump that it will vanish when he leaves office<\/strong>. In Marco Rubio and JD Vance, his administration holds at least two potential successors to the Oval Office, to say nothing of senators, representatives and governors who\u2019ve cheered on Trump\u2019s misconduct and would be prone to emulating it. And don\u2019t think for a moment that Democrats are immune<\/strong> to following unhealthy presidential precedents, whatever their commentary may be when those precedents are set by a Republican.<\/p>\n

With his 2018 withdrawal from the JCPOA, Trump reneged on a deal made by another president, but Trump has repeatedly reneged on his\u00a0own<\/em>\u00a0commitments too<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the case with the June 17, 2026 Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran, which Trump signed at the Palace of Versailles. Primarily brokered by\u00a0Pakistan<\/a>\u00a0with help from several Middle Eastern states, the MOU has been described as an agreement to make an agreement. It comprises\u00a014 points<\/a>\u00a0setting conditions for an immediate ceasefire and 60 days of negotiations for a lasting peace.<\/p>\n

Trump quickly fell short of full compliance. \u201cWhen you look at what\u2019s happening from the Iranian point of view\u2026the Iranians believe that the United States has not lived up to its part of the bargain<\/strong>,\u201d University of Chicago international relations scholar John Mearsheimer\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in July.<\/p>\n

There are several elements where Iran reasonably accused Trump of noncompliance, but we\u2019ll examine three, starting with the most significant one of all. Point 5 covers what has replaced uranium as the core focus of the conflict \u2014 Iran\u2019s selective blocking of traffic <\/strong>through the economically vital Strait of Hormuz:<\/p>\n

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5<\/a>:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cUpon the signing of this MOU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge, for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa.\u2026.[and] conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This point was widely understood to mean Iran would lift its blockade but still oversee and direct all traffic<\/strong>. When it exerted control of shipping traffic in March, Iran replaced the pre-war route that went down the center of the strait with one that guides traffic along Iran\u2019s coast. However, after the MOU was signed, the Trump administration started instructing ships to use a different route, which passes through the territorial waters of Oman.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe violated [the MOU] by setting up a southern corridor,\u201d<\/strong> retired US Army Colonel Daniel Davis declared on his\u00a0Deep Dive<\/a><\/em>\u00a0geopolitics podcast. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing in the MOU that we signed that authorizes a southern corridor <\/strong>or America to enter into it and decide on our own how that\u2019s going to be done. It\u2019s just not there.\u201d Davis, who returned from Afghanistan and\u00a0blew the whistle<\/a>\u00a0in 2012 on civilian and military officials\u2019 misleading of the public on how that war was progressing, suggested the US move in the strait was a deliberate provocation.<\/p>\n

Deliberate or not, it was provocative indeed<\/strong>. After issuing radio warnings to ships attempting to use the southern route, Iran fired disabling shots at them. Trump then restarted his bombing of Iran, which prompted Iranian retaliation against American forces and the countries that host them. The two countries then began a long series of \u201ctit for tat\u201d strikes that continued into this week.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s\u00a0Point 10<\/a>\u00a0of the MOU, in which the Trump administration promised to issue sanctions waivers <\/strong>that would allow for unfettered Iranian exports of oil and petroleum. Trump\u00a0revoked<\/a>\u00a0the waivers on July 7, pointing to Iran\u2019s attacks on ships that didn\u2019t submit to Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz\u2026 control that, again, the United States seemingly agreed to under Point 5.<\/p>\n

Numerically reflecting its high importance to Iran,\u00a0Point 1<\/a>\u00a0of the MOU required the \u201cimmediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts in Lebanon.\u201d<\/strong> It focused not so much on Iran and the United States but more so \u201ctheir allies\u201d \u2014 the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia and the US-allied State of Israel. However, Israel continued its operations, including a level of comprehensive destruction of civilian infrastructure in Southern Lebanon that mirrors what the Israeli Defense Forces did to Gaza. One can make the argument that the United States wasn\u2019t in a position to impose MOU terms on Israel, but if that\u2019s truly the case, Trump shouldn\u2019t have signed an MOU by which he essentially certified that he would.<\/p>\n

Doubling down, the Trump administration even took action to legitimize the IDF\u2019s presence in Lebanon. \u201c[The MOU] said we had to get the Israelis out of Lebanon. We made no effort to do that,<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman. \u201cIn fact, we turned around and Marco Rubio went and\u2026brokered an agreement between the Lebanese government and Israel that they will jointly go after Hezbollah. So what is this? At a minimum, it\u2019s not very smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critically, Trump\u2019s behavior bolsters the credibility of hardliners in the Iranian government <\/strong>who\u2019ve repeatedly argued that the United States cannot be trusted and shouldn\u2019t be negotiated with. Moderates prevailed over skeptical hardliners when Iran opted to sign the JCPOA, again when it twice attempted to seek sanctions relief and avert war via negotiations only to be subjected to surprise attacks, and again with the June 17 signing of the MOU.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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Trump’s actions have undercut the credibility of moderate Iranian leaders like President Pezeshkian, who ran on a platform favoring engagement with the West<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardliners said \u2018don\u2019t sign it, you can\u2019t trust the Americans\u2019,\u201d Mearsheimer recently told\u00a0Chris Hedges<\/a>. \u201cBut the moderates prevailed, and then the hardliners proved to be correct, so they\u2019re now in the driver\u2019s seat, <\/strong>as best we can tell\u2026and those hardliners will push forward a tougher deal for Trump to swallow\u201d whenever the next version of an MOU is pursued.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only adversaries of the US government that have been subjected to Trump\u2019s sudden reversals<\/strong> on terms he himself agreed to. Just ask Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

On July 22, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz \u200bbin Salman signed an agreement by which the kingdom would be able to build nuclear reactors<\/strong> and enrich uranium with US technology. Both governments published official announcements, and it was seen as a triumph for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

The very next morning, Trump blindsided the Saudis and his own subordinates<\/strong>, using a social media post to retroactively add a huge requirement \u2014 there would be\u00a0no nuclear deal<\/a>\u00a0unless Saudi Arabia joined the Abraham Accords, which entails recognition of Israel as a legitimate state, and the establishment of official diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n

Such a move would run counter to Saudi Arabia\u2019s long-running insistence that recognition of Israel is unthinkable without a firm plan for Palestinian statehood<\/strong>. Further, Trump\u2019s demand for a Saudi embrace of Israel comes at a time when Muslims within the kingdom and throughout the region are outraged by Israel\u2019s destruction of Gaza and southern Lebanon, making such a move perilous for the Saudi royals<\/strong>. Contrary to the agreement his energy secretary had signed, Trump also suddenly declared there would be no enrichment of nuclear material inside Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou strike a deal, you sign it, you announce it, you brag about it, and within 24 hours you\u2019re changing the terms in a fundamental way,<\/strong>\u201d observed the Quincy Institute\u2019s Trita Parsi on\u00a0Deep Dive<\/a><\/em>. \u201cIf that\u2019s what you do to Saudi Arabia \u2014 a country that the United States has a very close relationship with\u2026on top of that, the Trump family has very close business ties with \u2014 then what are you going to do with Iran? What is the shelf life of any American commitment under Trump to the Iranians in any agreement?\u201d<\/p>\n

Or to anyone else, for that matter.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve convinced the entire world that we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re doing, and we can\u2019t be trusted, and we don\u2019t keep our word,<\/strong> and we don\u2019t even stay consistent from one day to the next,\u201d former ambassador\u00a0Freeman<\/a>\u00a0recently told Davis. \u201cSo how can you deal with us? That\u2019s the question everybody has out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Alastair Crooke sees it, US diplomacy may never be the same. Summing up the effects of Trump\u2019s multi-front assault on trust in America, the former British intelligence agent, diplomat and founder of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum told\u00a0Glenn Diesen<\/a>, \u201cThe American ability to negotiate in the old-fashioned diplomatic idea, I think, is gone. I mean, we\u2019re in a new era.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Join thousands of free subscribers at starkrealities.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

* * *<\/em><\/p>\n

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 08\/01\/2026 – 23:20<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McGlinchey: Trump’s Damage To US Diplomacy Could Last A Generation By Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities As the US-Israel war on Iran grinds into its sixth month, it\u2019s clear to all but the most intellectually-dishonest Trump loyalists and war-bent Israel-sympathizers that it\u2019s been a spectacular failure. A war of aggression that was supposed to precipitate… Continue reading McGlinchey: Trump’s Damage To US Diplomacy Could Last A Generation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":645208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-645217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/645208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}