US Politics As It Happened: Trump posts bizarre, explosive AI videos

Trump has posted a couple of brief AI videos on Truth Social, showing a missile attack on Iran’s Kharg Island.

“Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!” he said in one post.

He’s floated the idea of “taking” Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil production centre, before.

There’s little chance of any end to the war on terms favourable to the US as long as hardliners hold some power in the Iranian government, one expert believes.

“They see the US as a deeply untrustworthy actor… and (have) been burnt so many times by Trump himself that they think that this is exactly what will happen again,” Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at London’s Chatham House think tank, told CNN.

“In their minds, by not losing (the war), they’ve won, and they’re not just trying to win out with a better deal from Washington, but they’re looking for internal longevity in their competition with their opponents.“

Hardliners have decided that Trump will not honour any agreement, and Vakil said Trump’s own erratic posturing undermined more moderate elements who sought economic relief.

“He says he wants to make Iran great again then threatens Iran in the next tweet, and that fans the flame of paranoia within the Iranian system,” Vakil said.

US Central Command has confirmed that the naval blockade fired on Iranian forces, but denied it was an act of aggression.

“Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed in a recent statement that strikes by US forces to prevent the IRGC from placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz were an ‘act of aggression’. This claim is absolutely FALSE,” CENTCOM said on X.

“US forces took limited, precise action against IRGC minelaying forces posing an imminent threat in the Strait of Hormuz.

“In essence, Iran created the threat, and the US military eliminated it to protect civilian mariners, commercial shipping, and the free flow of global commerce.”

Citrinowicz also warned, in the wake of news about new US strikes on Iran, that a return to “kinetic” conflict was inevitable.

“You don’t need to be a prophet, or have a crystal ball, to see that the administration’s expectation that the current situation can simply persist without another round of kinetic confrontation is fundamentally disconnected from reality,” he said.

“Absent a political agreement built around a return to the framework of understandings, renewed escalation is inevitable.”

Israeli-based national security expert and former intelligence officer Danny Citrinowicz, on the other hand, has cautioned against taking recent US successes against Iran too much to heart.

“Imagine that, at the outset of the US-Israeli campaign, someone had predicted that six months later Iran’s nuclear problem would remain unresolved, its missile threat would persist, the regime would still be standing, and Washington would be celebrating the restoration of roughly 30 percent of the pre-war maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that was open before the war began,” he wrote on X.

“Would we really describe that outcome as the United States regaining strategic control of the conflict?“

He said Iran had suffered tremendous losses during the war, while recent US operational success such as clearing the Strait of Hormuz of mines should be noted.

But none of Washington’s strategic goals had been achieved.

“The Pentagon is acutely aware that another major round of fighting with Iran would consume capabilities and attention needed in other theatres, particularly the Indo-Pacific. That constraint matters,” Citrinowicz said.

“And after the costs of this war, it is difficult to imagine that future administrations will view another large-scale confrontation with Iran as an attractive option.”

The Jordanian military said eight missiles were launched into the kingdom’s airspace.

Iran has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which followed the US striking two rocket launchers reportedly trying to launch mines into the Strait of Hormuz.

Jordan’s military said all eight missiles were taken out by air defence systems before they threatened any people or property.

A CNN global analyst and former national security operative says the “conventional argument” that Iran is winning or has won the war is not as solid as it appears.

“Wars are contests of leverage and endurance. And the contest now looks very different from even a few months ago,” Brett McGurk wrote for the US outlet.

McGurk said that after a flailing start by the US, the war had entered a “fourth act” and that the Iranian regime’s projection of its own immortality was shaky.

He compared the regime’s boast of immovability to similar claims made by ISIS and Hamas.

“The US military has a clear objective as outlined this week by the commander of CENTCOM, Admiral Brad Cooper. It is enforcing the blockade on Iran and facilitating the movement of commercial traffic,” he said.

“The objective for the US should be similarly well-defined. Iran must abandon claims on the Strait and give up the nuclear enrichment program. Until then, this will be the new status quo.

“And that status quo — perhaps for the first time since the war began — now favours Washington, not Tehran.”

A US official has reportedly confirmed nobody was injured and said all Iranian missiles were intercepted in Tehran’s attacks on Jordan.

The official told CNN no impacts had been reported so far, contrary to IRGC claims.

No attacks on any other countries have been confirmed.

The IRGC have reportedly confirmed airstrikes were launched at US bases in Jordan.

The paramilitary force claims to have destroyed aircraft maintenance facilities at two bases in retaliation for earlier US strikes that Iran state media say killed soldiers and civilians.

The US military has made no comment so far in relation to attacks by Iran.