President Donald Trump’s “Great Deal” is nothing more than a desperate attempt to save face in the wake of humiliation, one foreign policy expert argues.
David Rothkopf, appearing on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, explained that the now 80-year-old president’s birthday peace deal to end his nearly four-month-long war with Iran will only bring the U.S. back to where it was before the conflict, if not worse.
“He’s got nothing else to celebrate. He’s got no other achievements,” the political analyst told host Joanna Coles about his bizarre 80th birthday bash at the White House on Sunday. “His administration, at this point, is left with violence and the use of force. He attacked Venezuela...”
Coles noted that Trump technically just accomplished his “birthday deal with Iran,” but the political guru pushed back on the idea that the deal could be considered a success.
“Not so fast there, Joanna,” Rothkopf replied. “First of all, there is no deal. Nothing was signed yesterday. It’s going to be signed on Friday.”
Though Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. and Iran had reached a peace agreement on Sunday, nothing had been officially signed.
The New York Times reported on Monday that Trump and Vice President JD Vance had electronically signed an agreement with Iran’s chief negotiator, but that an official signing ceremony would take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.
“Secondly, the thing that’s going to be signed on Friday is not a deal. It’s a memorandum of understanding,” Rothkopf continued. “Thirdly, in diplomatic terms, you’d probably call it a ‘framework.’ Why? Because none of the hard problems have been resolved.”
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast in a frequently recycled statement: “David Rothkopf is a far-left loser who clearly suffers from a severe and debilitating disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
U.S. officials said on Monday that the full text of the memorandum of understanding, a non-binding outline of shared goals to work toward a future explicit contract, would be released within the next 24 to 48 hours, according to the Times.
Some of the Trump administration’s most critical issues, including questions related to Iran’s nuclear program, are not resolved by the preliminary agreement and have instead been postponed for future negotiations.
“They’re all going to be resolved, allegedly, in the next 60 days. Things about nukes and getting rid of enriched uranium,” Rothkopf added. ”Which means, what does this do? What is this allegedly going to do?“
“Well, it’s going to restore the status quo as of the day before Trump’s beginning of this illegal war, so that ships can go through the Strait of Hormuz, so that hopefully people will see gas prices come down,” he said, adding that Americans likely won’t see a difference at the gas pump for “many, many months.”
“And this is all contingent on Israel agreeing to go along with this in Lebanon, which Israel has said in the past 24 hours they’re not going to do,” he explained.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a press conference on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces would remain in all of their “security zones,” which include locations in Lebanon and Gaza, for “as long as it is required, the Times reported.
Iran and Pakistan asserted that a termination of military action in Lebanon was included in the peace agreement, though senior U.S. officials said it was not.
Trump called the Israeli Prime Minister “crazy” earlier this month over the nation’s continued strikes in Lebanon despite ongoing peace talks and ceasefire agreements.
“So, it’s not a deal; it’s not even a framework of a deal,” Rothkopf said. “It’s a sham. If you launch a war against somebody and the other side comes out better than you do, and then you have to sue for peace and pay them money to get you back to the status quo—in military or in diplomatic terms, you know what we call that?”
“We call that a loss. We call that surrender,” he concluded. “And what Trump is doing is he is surrendering to a weaker ally because a war we shouldn’t have started was blundered through, contained many mistakes, and he just wants to turn the page.”
Trump’s approval rating has plummeted throughout his second term, particularly since he launched his surprise war on Iran nearly four months ago.
Since then, 13 American service members have been killed, more than 100 wounded, and gas prices have surged following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
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