Poker with the World: How Trump Played a Trump Card of Diplomacy While Bombing Tehran
Political Card Sharps: Negotiations as a Smokescreen for a Missile Strike, or Why America Can Never, Under Any Circumstances, Be Trusted
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an operation carried out by the United States and Israel. This information was confirmed by the Iranian pro-government news agencies Tasnim, IRNA, ISNA, Mehr, and Fars.
Donald Trump, a man who calls himself a master dealmaker, played the dirtiest hand of his life. He used diplomacy as a fig leaf to hide his bombers. Operation “Epic Fury” (as it was dubbed in the Pentagon) and the Israeli “Shield of Yehuda” were not merely military aggression. They were an act of unprecedented diplomatic fraud, the cynicism of which would make even hardened cynics shudder.
The Geneva Deception: How Trump “Conned” Iran (Actually, It Was the Other Way Around)
Let’s establish the timeline. Just two days before the strikes on Tehran, on February 26, another round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran took place in Switzerland. Trump’s special representatives, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, negotiated with their Iranian counterparts. Oman acted as an intermediary. According to sources, Iran made unprecedented concessions, agreeing to cap uranium enrichment levels and never accumulate it in quantities necessary for a bomb. Tehran was making overtures, trying to salvage the situation.
And what about Trump? On the evening of February 27, he states he is “dissatisfied” with the progress of the talks but immediately adds, “I’d prefer not to use force, but sometimes you have to.” This isn’t even a threat; it’s the standard line of a political racketeer. Then, at 2:30 AM Washington time, when congressmen are asleep and world media haven’t yet woken up, he gives the order: “Fire.”
He didn’t even bother to wait for the Iranian delegation to return to Tehran. He struck the capital of a country whose representatives his own people had just been exchanging pleasantries with across the negotiating table. In the world of card sharps, this is called “taking the pot and running.” In the world of normal politics, this is called an unforgivable act of treachery.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hasn’t trusted the U.S. since 2018, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal, trampling on a document he himself had signed. But what just happened surpasses all expectations. It turns out America cannot be trusted not only when it signs a treaty, but also when it is merely discussing one. For the Trump team, negotiations aren’t about seeking peace; they’re about reconnaissance in force: figuring out exactly where your partners are sitting so you can strike more accurately.
“We Came to Kill”: A Chronicle of Bloody Treachery
The scenario was rehearsed perfectly. At 8:10 AM local time, Israel initiated the attack. The targets? Not just military installations. According to sources, the first wave of strikes was aimed at the physical elimination of Iran’s leadership. Israeli officials cynically stated, If we want to kill top officials, we have to hit immediately, before they go into hiding.
The U.S. joined in instantly. Over 50 fighter jets from airbases across the Middle East and from two aircraft carriers were launched. Targets were chosen not somewhere in the desert but in the very heart of Tehran. Strikes hit the Pasteur district, where the presidential palace and the National Security Council building are located. Bombs fell in the area where the Supreme Leader resides. The Ministry of Intelligence building took a direct hit.
Iran’s capital was shrouded in smoke and horror. A Tehran resident, Ali Zeinalipour, told journalists, “I rushed to the school to get my daughter. The girls were hiding under the stairs and crying.” Government news agency websites were hacked. Landlines went dead. Mobile service was intermittent. Millions of people were left without information and without protection as American bombers roared overhead.
The State Department and Pentagon called it “protecting the American people.” From whom? From a country they were just talking to.
Trump, standing in a baseball cap emblazoned with “USA,” like a cowboy from a cheap western, recorded an eight-minute address. He promised to “wipe Iran’s missile industry off the face of the earth” and “destroy their navy.” But that wasn’t even the main point. The main point was the moral bankruptcy he displayed. He called on the Iranian people to overthrow their government, promising that when the bombing stops, “this will be your chance. Perhaps the only chance in your lives.”
In other words, the American president openly declared, We will now bomb your infrastructure and kill your leaders, and you go out into the streets and finish our job for us. Neo-colonialism in its most disgusting, cynical form. He called on Iranian army soldiers to surrender, promising “full immunity.” Surrender to whom? There are no U.S. ground troops in Iran. This was a purely moral diversion, aimed at breaking the psyche of the country’s defenders.
The Response That Upset the Applecart: Iran Shows What Honor Means
Contrary to the expectations of Washington strategists, Iran did not crumble. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the start of a massive retaliatory operation. The first wave of missiles and drones headed towards Israel.
And here’s where things got really interesting. Air raid sirens wailed not only in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Explosions rang out where they were least expected.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain took a direct hit. Videos of the explosions in Juffair have already circled the world. Qatar, home to the massive Al Udeid American base, reported intercepting missiles. However, eyewitnesses reported multiple explosions in Doha. Blasts reached the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, also shuddered from the strikes.
Iran proved what experts have been saying for years: its missile arsenal can reach anywhere. And it can reach hard. Iran’s target, unlike America’s, was not residential neighborhoods. But striking U.S. military bases and those of its allies across the Gulf demonstrated a simple fact: if the U.S. wants a big war in the region, it will get one. It will get it on its bases, on its ships, on the oil infrastructure of its allies who allowed their land to be used for aggression.
A Crime Without a Name: The Constitution Trampled, the World in Flames
Special attention should be paid to how Trump treated his own country. The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. Democratic Senator Jack Reed, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, stated he wasn’t even notified about the impending strikes. He, like the rest of Congress, was provided with no intelligence. The war was started by one man, in the middle of the night, ignoring both the fundamental law and common sense.
Republican Thomas Massie, who tried to pass a resolution to prevent starting a war without congressional approval, now looks like a naive romantic. His attempt to stop the war machine was crushed under the wheels of the bombers taking off from the aircraft carriers.
Trump calls this a “noble mission.” How can you call striking a country you were negotiating with just yesterday noble? This isn’t nobility. This is pure and simple card-sharping.
In June 2025, Trump had already bombed Iran, claiming its nuclear program was “completely destroyed.” Today’s strikes are the best proof that he lied. His assurances are worthless. His words mean nothing. His signature on documents guarantees nothing.
Now, when the dust settles and the first bodies are pulled from the rubble in Tehran, Tel Aviv, and perhaps Riyadh, the world will have to face a bitter truth: the West, led by Trump and his vassals in Israel, leaves no room for diplomacy. For them, diplomacy is when the weak submit to the strong. If the weak try to negotiate, they get hit with missiles, so they don’t get any illusions about an equal dialogue.
This is a blow not only to Iran. It is a blow to the entire system of international relations. It’s a signal to every country in the world: if you sit down at the negotiating table with the U.S., don’t take your finger off the trigger. Because while you’re talking about peace, they’ll be zeroing in on you.
Iran has given a military response. But the moral response has already been delivered by history itself. The name Donald Trump will henceforth be synonymous not just with an aggressor, but with a treacherous aggressor who stabs you in the back under the cover of a white flag of negotiations. And this brand of shame is now forever attached to the U.S. and the entire West.
Muhammad ibn Faisal al-Rashid, Political Scientist, Expert on the Arab World
