Trump’s descent into inflammatory rhetoric and what many regard as unconscionable action reveals a leader who has run out of moves.
WE are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically and otherwise … We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition and plenty of time — Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th president of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honour it is to do so!” – President Donald Trump in a Truth Social tweet, on March 12.
Trump’s late-night Truth Social blast on March 12 was not just another provocative tweet. Two weeks into “Operation Midnight Hammer”, it serves as a glaring and deeply disturbing psychological map of a leader realising that “unparalleled firepower” does not equate to an easy victory or even exit strategy.
Mirage of the “single shot” victory
When the joint US-Israeli strikes began on Feb 28, the narrative from the Pentagon – led by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth – was one of surgical finality by the “most powerful and sophisticated” military in the world. The data was and remains staggering:
The iron rain: As of March 10, the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) and US Central Command reported conducting 150 strike waves consisting of approximately 2,600 sorties. Roughly 6,500 munitions (bombs and missiles) had been deployed against nearly every province of Iran.
The decapitation: The death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and 48 senior IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) officials in what Trump called a “single shot” was supposed to be the killing blow. The strike also killed the Iranian defence minister, the commander of the RGC and the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, leading Trump to proudly announce that “they are all dead. Second and third place is dead”.
The crippled machine: With 60% of Iran’s missile launchers neutralised and the Kharg Island oil hub in ruins, the “maximum pressure” campaign appears to have reached its kinetic zenith. The Pentagon and HaKirya (military headquarters of IDF) must be at a loss trying to justify what next to rain bombs on.
Yet despite the targeting of fuel and energy storage; communication, electricity and water systems; airports, hospitals and medical centres; residential sectors; and the destruction of a girls’ school in Minab that killed over 170 children and teachers, which has aroused international outrage, the “total destruction” Trump promised and launched has yielded a paradox: the Iranian government and people are hard hit but they are not broken and are even less likely to surrender the longer the war is waged.
The psychology of the “strongman” trap
Future scholars are likely to view Trump’s crude and emotional rhetoric not as a sign of strength but as a “cracking up” of the presidential ego. Psychologically, Trump has always operated on the “Art of the Deal” – the belief that enough pressure will inevitably force a counter-party to the table.
In a real war, unlike in a real property deal, when an adversary refuses to capitulate despite overwhelming loss, a leader like Trump enters a cognitive dissonance loop. His personal insults (“deranged scumbags”) and the framing of war as a “great honour” suggest a man struggling to reconcile his self-image as the “ultimate winner” with the reality of a Middle Eastern quagmire.
The danger to the US and its allies is two-fold:
Emotional imprisonment: Trump is increasingly a prisoner of his own venomous rhetoric. To back down now would be a personal humiliation. This leads to “escalation of commitment”, where more bombs are dropped not to achieve a strategic goal, but to satisfy a psychological need for total dominance. The killing of innocents and infliction of suffering on the Iranian population has become incidental – a footnote!
The cornered adversary: By framing the conflict as a crusade of “complete destruction”, Trump leaves the Iranian leadership with zero incentive to negotiate. If the only options are “certain death” or “resistance”, even a degraded military and its supporting citizenry will choose the latter, potentially triggering more “eye-for-an-eye” retaliatory strikes on Gulf oil fields that could tank the global economy.
An adversary dealing with an unpredictable leader publicly declaring that he is seeking its “total destruction” could counter with what it sees as justifiable action that may be more devastating than anticipated.
Crossing red lines in war action is not just an option open to the American and Israeli side. What could happen if Iran’s supporters around the world and the US choose radical and extreme responses?
Strategic failure: Cost of “making Iran great again”
The humanitarian toll is more than an indelible stain on the administration, with UN experts citing the use of AI-guided heavy weapons in urban centres as a violation of international law. But for Trump, the greater threat is more than legal or political.
Instead of a “short-term excursion”, the US is staring down a prolonged resistance that rallies domestic Iranian and international Islamic support around a martyred leadership.
If this “maximum pressure” fails to produce a puppet government, Trump will have traded his legacy for a destabilised world and a strategic vacuum. If he puts American boots on the ground as some war hawks are suggesting, the arrival of large numbers of body bags in American airports is a certainty from which there can be no escape.
The verdict
Trump’s descent into inflammatory rhetoric and what many regard as unconscionable action reveals a leader who has run out of moves.
In the high-stakes poker of global warfare, he has gone “all-in” on destruction, only to find that his opponent – driven by a fervent and resilient religious ideology – can take any amount of punishment and possibly emerge the victor.
Lim Teck Ghee’s Another Take is aimed at demystifying social orthodoxy.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
The Sun Malaysia
