Forgot Your Password?

New to The Nation? Subscribe

Print subscriber? Activate your online access

.nation-small__b{fill:#fff;}

Trump and Netanyahu Want to Turn Iran Into a Failed State

This war looks designed to cause maximum chaos and instability. The world will pay a high price.

President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club on December 29, 2025.

On Saturday morning, Donald Trump made a brief speech outlining the rationale for the war of choice against Iran that the United States and Israel had launched hours before. Amid the rambling, one motive seemingly became clear: regime change. With typical grandiosity, Trump intoned, “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.… When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

Yet, the following day, Trump told The Atlantic that he was open to negotiations with the government he’d just said he wanted to remove. “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” he said.

It’s hardly surprising that someone as erratic and mendacious as Trump is talking out of both sides of his mouth, even about something as serious as a regional war. His Saturday speech was filled with contradictions. He claimed, for instance, that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated” and then said “it will be totally again obliterated.” The phrase “again obliterated” neatly encapsulates a foreign policy with no regard for either facts or logic—which is presumably one reason mainstream outlets such as The New Yorker and The Atlantic are signaling their skepticism about Trump’s war.

If Trump’s interview with The Atlantic is anything to go by, the president seems to want a reprise of the so-called Twelve-Day War the US and Israel launched last June: a short display of US/Israeli military prowess designed to cow the Iranians into yielding during negotiations. This might be described as Trump’s minimum agenda, but it is combined with other contradictory goals that are much more dangerous and far-reaching. Mixing “the art of the deal” with “the art of war” is not a simple proposition. Wars have a way of spiraling out of control—particularly when one side makes incendiary moves, such as the unprovoked........

© The Nation