MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday lambasted President Donald Trump over his ongoing war on Iran, noting that there’s no indication the U.S. is even close to resolving the conflict during his presidency because Trump is a “pathological liar.”
O’Donnell said Wednesday, “But if it does end during his presidency, it will have to be through a negotiation with Iran. And just imagine tonight what it must be like for Iran to be negotiating with a pathological liar. How do you negotiate with a pathological liar?”
The “Last Word” host added, “And so, Donald Trump’s war drags on, because Donald Trump has no idea what to say to the Iranian regime to end his war. And … it would be impossible for anyone in Iran to believe anything Donald Trump might say or promise.”
Trump launched his war for several contradictory reasons and appears to have achieved none of the main four objectives laid out earlier this year. The war has already cost at least 18 U.S. military service members and more than 3,000 Iranians their lives.
The war led Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes, resulting in a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict, which Trump abandoned after threatening to destroy “a whole civilization” in a failed attempt to pressure Iran.
The MAGA leader vowed at the start of his war that it would end within weeks.
“That is the worst case scenario for a pathologically lying president, a war that depends on a president’s credibility to end that war,” said O’Donnell. “That war cannot end with a pathological liar on one side of the negotiations. This is a president who can’t be trusted on anything that he says.”
He explained, “And remember that everything that a president does say is studied by every other government in the world, especially America’s adversaries. Everything they say, even the lower-visibility things. And … Iran can see that Donald Trump lies about everything.”
O’Donnell added that this extends even to the “boring subject” of interest rates, which Trump tried to force former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to lower before threatening to prosecute Powell for not doing his bidding and then replacing Powell with Kevin Warsh.
Warsh went on to vote unanimously with the Federal Reserve board on Wednesday to hike interest rates, prompting Trump to say he isn’t angry with Warsh and to personally urge the new chair to go along with the board.
“The Iranian regime was watching Donald Trump today defending the new Federal Reserve chair for voting to raise interest rates, something that Donald Trump previously seemed to believe was some kind of crime,” said O’Donnell.
“So the Iranian regime watching Donald Trump talking about the Federal Reserve today was finding proof once again that Donald Trump,” he said before adding, “doesn’t mean anything he says, which is the worst possible thing you could know about a president in the middle of a war.”