There’s a lesson there but I haven’t learnt it: Trump on the limits to his power amid Iran deal

US-Iran peace deal: US President Donald Trump says he is sure there was a lesson in the Iran war to be learnt in terms of his power, but he didn’t learn it. As far as he is concerned, there are no limits to his power. 

Trump was speaking at The Axios Show, when he said he doesn’t believe there is any limit to his power. He acknowledged that he signed the deal to prevent the war from snowballing into a global economic depression. He, however, denied that he was humbled by that experience. 

When he was asked what he learnt about the limits to his power, Trump said, “I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits.”

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Trump had entered the war, which he said was going to be over in a couple of weeks and that Iran would be decimated. Cut to over 100 days later: Trump has signed a peace deal with Iran agreeing to stop military action, create a $300 billion fund to reconstruct Iran, and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, among other crucial points.

The US President, however, maintained that they defeated Iran “totally militarily” and even the memorandum of understanding signed between the parties is an “unconditional surrender”. "Who else could have done a blockade like that? I did a naval blockade where not one ship was able to get through. Some tried. It didn't last very long,” said Trump. 

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Responding to critics who said Trump should have been tougher on Iran, he said that the only way he could have been tougher was to go there for another two or three weeks and “continue to bomb the hell out of them”. “But what does that get us? The Strait of Hormuz will not be open,” he reasoned, adding that there would have been no oil for months. 

Meanwhile, responding to the Iran deal, the country’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Trump signed the peace pact “out of desperation”. He said he had a “different view” but was persuaded by President Masoud Pezeshkian who said the deal would "protect the rights of the Iranian nation".