• Iran always lies, always cheats
• You have to have a way to remove nuclear material
• We want to make sure Iran doesn’t pose a threat to Israel and America, that’s our common goal
• Some times we have tactical disagreements
• We always find a way to work out our differences
• We have to disarm Hezbollah and demilitarize Lebanon
• A free and independent Lebanon needs to emerge
• Many of those chieftains targeting Israel are in Beirut
• We’ve weakened the Iran regime, it’s not over
• Iran is ‘playing with fire’ on escalation
• Trump understands what’s at stake
• I will leave it to Trump if military escalation needed
• I don’t think Iran wants an out

The comment about demilitarizing Lebanon is concerning because it’s a maximalist goal that essentially means conquering the whole country. That’s not going to be done in days but over many months.

Earlier today, Donald Trump told the New York Post in an interview published that the US naval blockade around the Strait of Hormuz could last
through Labor Day.

“I think it could be [closed through Labor Day, Monday Sept, 7], but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” he said.

The problem is that Trump initially said this war would be over in 4-6 weeks and we’re long past that. He’s also made comments about it ending fairly quickly many times.

He also said he would
like to meet the new ayatollah of Iran, and “probably will” at some
point.