Trump and U.S. Hubris Undid the Plan for Iran's Destruction

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

08 Apr 2026

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U.S. aircraft destroyed near Isfahan, Iran. SOCIAL MEDIA/Social Media via REUTERS

The U.S. has been temporarily rattled in its regime change effort against Iran. Iranian resistance, hubris on the part of the U.S., and Donald Trump’s personal instability combined to undo a twisted fantasy of conquest.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
President Donald Trump on April 7, 2026

“The enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat in its dishonorable, illegal, and criminal war against the Iranian nation.”
Supreme National Security Council of Iran, April 7 2026

This columnist recently heard an interview with a psychiatrist who along with other medical experts have concluded that Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist who also has dementia. This diagnosis certainly explains why the president of the United States would publicly announce his intention to commit a genocidal war crime against the 90 million citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was quite fortuitous for Iran and for the whole word that the incapacitated president blurted out the evil U.S. plot. After Iran’s resistance and determination to hold the Straits of Hormuz, and as a result of the uproar caused by his inability to control his impulses, Trump forced the U.S. to accept a two-week cease fire with Iran and agreed to hold talks brokered by Pakistan.

In response to his latest and most ominous invective, members of congress began demanding either impeachment, Trump’s removal from office as indicated in Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, and/or a vote on war powers authorizing military action against Iran. Although the war powers vote is often a dodge, a way for democrats to support the war while claiming they do not. They know that the two republican controlled houses of congress will vote “no” and they can give the appearance of being opposed when they are either in full support or cynically fence straddling and not really taking a stand. Of course demanding Trump’s removal would be a serious step and would necessitate Vice President JD Vance and cabinet officers deciding to remove. These questions are important and interesting, but this moment calls for putting two and two together to figure out what the president and his team were actually planning to do and why they had to change course.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired three generals, including the Army Chief of Staff just days before Trump’s missive. The firings coincided with what was said to be the rescue of an airman who had been shot down over Iran, but which upon further inspection appears to have been a failed effort to establish a forward operating base near Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. It is an understatement to say that generals are usually not removed in time of war. One must ask if these generals opposed a plan for a devastating attack, perhaps a nuclear attack on Iran.

It seems that in this instance the diminished president did the world a favor when he spewed this venom while at his keyboard. On April 5, Easter Sunday, Trump wrote these memorable words directed at Iran’s leadership. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

While other presidents extend Easter greetings to millions of people in the country who celebrate that religious holiday, Trump instead began to give up the game. A vindictive and petty man suffering from dementia couldn’t keep a secret. Hegseth showed his hand with the firings and the inexplicable tale of a wounded pilot hiking 700 feet to be rescued by not one but two C-130 transport planes and helicopters which we’re told all had to be blown up because they were stuck in the dirt and had to be destroyed to keep from falling into Iranian hands. Perhaps that is true but it is also possible that the entire operation failed because Iranian forces were lying in wait and the surprisingly large amount of weaponry had nothing to do with rescuing one man and everything to do with plans for stealing enriched uranium and establishing a base inside Iran.

The Easter post was followed two days later by the threat to kill millions of people who nonetheless showed themselves to be resolute and who would not cower to a country which actually does have the ability to kill them all. Iranians formed human chains at power plants and bridges across Iran. Their actions were a collective middle finger directed at the U.S. and the zionist entity, confirming that they support the Iranian state and the leadership that war propagandists claim they want to be freed from. They are letting the world know that even if they should perish they do so while standing firmly against the war criminal nations that seek to destroy their country and kill millions of their people in the process.

Trump’s threat was too awful to be ignored and any possibility of it being realized ended on the same day that it was made. To be a fly on the wall at the white house and the State Department and the War Department after Trump’s instability unraveled a dastardly plan. Yet all credit must be given to Iran for defying entreaties to engage in negotiation which the U.S. never undertakes in good faith. Iran has the right to defend itself and that is exactly what they did. They suffered damage but so did U.S. forces and so did Israel and so did the Arab monarchies in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

Even as the Iranians agreed to talks they were clear on how they see the U.S. after a 47-year effort to upend their state. The statement from the Supreme National Security Council read in part, “These negotiations will begin in Islamabad on Friday, April 11, with complete distrust about the US side . . .” The U.S. agreed to a 10-point plan as a basis for the talks. Those points include Iranian control over passage through the Straits of Hormuz, ending combat against the Axis of Resistance, withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region, payment for damages to Iran, the lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets, and ratification of the agreement in a United Nations Security Council resolution. The last line of the statement may be the most important. “Our hands are on the trigger, and as soon as the slightest mistake by the enemy is made, it will be responded to with full force.”

The U.S. has been temporarily thrown off course, with its plans for regime change unmet for the moment. While the outcome is a good one, the actions of the U.S. and Israel cannot be forgotten. Israel assassinated Iran’s head of state, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The U.S. bombed a girls’ school in Minab and killed 165 children and adults. Universities and infrastructure were destroyed and other top leaders such as Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council were also assassinated. The regime change fantasy, which is a plan for U.S. and Israeli hegemony and an assault on the multipolar world, has not disappeared.

This terrorism by two rogue states was the culmination of the evisceration of international law at the hands of the U.S. and the resulting impotence of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which all have proven themselves to be weak and ineffectual when tasked with living up to their own requirements. The United Nations Charter isn’t worth the paper it is written on and the U.S. and Israel had good reason to believe they could pull off their plan to destroy the Iranian state.

Fortunately, Iran has built military power over the years, and the assassinations and atrocities convinced them they had to stand firm. It is a good thing that, as they put it, their hands are still on the trigger.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.