The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board greeted Donald Trump’s latest pivot on the Iran war with skepticism, questioning the president’s abrupt shift from threatening annihilation of the country to touting a possible deal to end the conflict he launched in February.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper’s board, which has frequently called out the president during his second term, opened the editorial — headlined “Trump’s Latest Iran ‘DEAL’” — with a pointed jab:
“A friend quipped the other day that President Trump truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because he has already ended the Iran war eight times. Will the ninth time be the charm after his latest decision to call off a military escalation in search of a deal with the revolutionary regime?”
On Trump’s latest 180, the editorial cited a Saudi Arabian state news report that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had urged Trump to stand down over fears Saudi facilities could become targets of Iranian retaliation.
“If that’s true, it’s another sign that Iran now has escalation dominance in this conflict,” the board wrote, also arguing that “Iran’s regime knows signals of weakness when it hears them” and Tehran understands the conflict is causing Trump political harm at home.