Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump said on more than one occasion: “We’re gonna win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore, Mr. President, it’s too much.’ And I’ll say, ‘No it isn’t. We have to keep winning. We have to win more!’”
If this is winning, “Please, please. We can’t take it anymore.”
Trump has frequently declared victory in the war on Iran.
What has he accomplished besides having a bunch of things blown up?
According to Pete Hegseth’s comments on April 8, “Together with our Israeli partners, America's military achieved every single objective on plan, on schedule, exactly as laid out from day one. Iran's navy is at the bottom of the sea. . . . Iran's air force has been wiped out. Iran no longer has an air defense — any sort of a comprehensive air defense system. . . . Their missile program is functionally destroyed, launchers, production facilities and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost completely ineffective. . . .[T]hey can no longer build missiles, build rockets, build launchers or build UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground, set back in historic fashion. . . . . Their top leadership was systematically eliminated, their previous Iranian supreme leader dead, the supreme national security council secretary dead, the supreme leader office advisor dead, the supreme leader military office chief dead, the defense minister no longer with us, the IRGC commander dead, the armed forces general staff commander dead, the intelligence minister dead, the IRGC navy commander no longer here, the IRGC Intel chief dead.”
So they blew up the Iranian navy and air force. They blew up rockets, warehouses, and factories. They killed an array of people in Iranian leadership positions. But there has been no regime change, and while there have been no Iranian missile attacks since April 8, what we know to be true is that this is in the period of the ceasefire, so maybe Iran is following through on its commitment (or building more munitions).
What’s more, while there was also the statement that Iran could have no nuclear material that could be used to build a bomb, the state of that material is unclear.
On June 21, 2025, after Operation Midnight Hammer, Trump announced: “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.
“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
The Iranians must be quite industrious if they could bring back facilities that were “completely and totally obliterated” in a matter of months.
Iran is thought to still possess some 970 pounds of uranium that’s been enriched to 60%. A bomb requires 90% purity.
It requires from 33 to 55 pounds of uranium to construct an atomic bomb.
This means Iran still has enough to build from 19 to 29 nuclear weapons.
It also has, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, more material, as in 405 pounds enriched to 20%, 13,244 pounds to 5%, and 5,260 pounds up to 2%.
Is any of that gone?
What is gone is more money out of the pockets of American consumers.
Because of the Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, gasoline prices have skyrocketed in the US (and elsewhere around the world).
Trump regularly said during his most-recent campaign as well as after he was re-elected that the price of energy, as in petroleum products, in particular, are the key to the costs of everything such that if the price of oil went down, the prices of everything else would go down, too.
On February 26, 2026, the average price of a gallon of gas in the US was $2.98. According to AAA, as of April 12 the price is up to $4.12 per gallon.
That’s a 38% increase.
What’s more — and it is really more — the current price of a gallon of diesel fuel — the fuel that powers everything from big rig semi-trucks to agricultural equipment — is $5.66. Growing goods is going to be more costly for farmers who have to fuel all of the Deere equipment. And moving those goods to the grocery store in a semi-trailer is going to be more expensive, too.
In other words, if the price of fuel has gone up as it has, and if Trump argued that the price of fuel drives the prices of everything else, then the prices of everything will continue to rise.
What is Trump’s plan to open the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic?
It is to make it impossible to go through it.
Or, as he posted on April 12 on his social media platform, “Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.”
Or course what you or I consider to be immediate (i.e., “right now”) isn’t the same in the vocabulary of Donald Trump, as he added, “The Blockade will begin shortly.”
Well, it does take time to move some ships around.
He continued, “Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade. Iran will not be allowed to profit off this Illegal Act of EXTORTION.”
Given that he’s pretty much annoyed our NATO allies, some of whom (e.g., the UK has world-class mine-sweeping capabilities), who these “Other Countries” are, remains to be determined.
The “Illegal Act of EXTORTION” that Trump refers to is likely the toll that Iran is charging to oil tankers.
How does that square with Trump’s comment to ABC News’s Jon Karl on Wednesday, April 8, that he was thinking about collaborating with Iran on charging fees for boats going through the Strait: “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture.”
So it is a business opportunity if the US breaks maritime law along with Iran but EXTORTION otherwise.
The point is, this isn’t “winning.” This is “flailing.”
When will Donald Trump explain to the American people what he thinks he has accomplished in Iran?
Well, the answer to that is “frequently.”
Unfortunately, along with the frequency is policy incoherence.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.