All of his assumptions proven wrong, Donald Trump is Iran’s newest hostage

April 26, 2026 — 3:30pm

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“It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.”

That’s the opening of the classic O. Henry short story The Ransom of Red Chief.

The tale, written in 1907, is the ultimate parable about the perils of trying to seize and control a hellion so devious, so maniacal, so awful that the captors become the captives.

The story is about two small-time crooks who think they can make some easy money by kidnapping a 10-year-old boy, the son of an affluent landowner in a sleepy Alabama town.

They underestimate badly. When they go to abduct the red-haired, freckle-faced boy, he is throwing rocks at a kitten and hurls a brick at one of his kidnappers.

‘Don’t worry about it’: Welcome to Trump’s voyage of the damned

Maureen DowdNew York Times columnist

New York Times columnist

“Red Chief, the terror of the plains,” as the boy calls himself, runs his captors ragged. He relishes tormenting the men and doesn’t want to go home. In the end, they have to drop their demand for a $2000 ransom, pay the boy’s father $250 to take the demonic child off their hands and run for the hills.

President Donald Trump went along with Bibi Netanyahu’s Panglossian case for slamming Iran. It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.

After nearly two months of tangling with the demonic Iranian leadership and its allies, Trump looks desperate to run........

© The Sydney Morning Herald