How Donald Trump's Iran deal betrays the Iranian people | The Jerusalem Post
By: The Jerusalem Post JPost. com
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For months, US President Donald Trump has framed himself as the world leader who was willing to confront the Islamic Republic more aggressively than any Western leader before him.
The president spoke openly about supporting Iran's protesters, warned Tehran that America's patience had run out, and encouraged Iranians to keep pushing against a regime that for nearly half a century has ruled them through religious repression, political domination, public executions, and fear.
"Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!" Trump wrote on social media in January, after the regime's brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. "HELP IS ON ITS WAY."
This came after thousands - estimates range from 30,000 to 40,000 - protesters were killed in two days alone on the streets of Iran between January 8-9.
Across the country, many believed Washington had finally understood the true nature of the Islamic Republic and the desperation of the Iranian people living beneath it.
Birds fly as smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 2, 2026. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)
What did Iranian citizens get out of the war with Israel, US?
Now, only months later, those same Iranians are watching Trump move toward an agreement with the very regime he once appeared determined to isolate and weaken, and they feel betrayed.
Reports over the weekend that the US and Iran are close to finalizing a framework agreement over the Strait of Hormuz and a broader ceasefire arrangement may have reassured markets worried about energy prices and regional escalation.
Gulf states are pushing for calm, and oil traders want stability. Trump himself is facing political pressure over the economic impact of the war and rising fuel costs ahead of the midterm elections later this year.
But while US negotiators, through Pakistani mediator efforts, discuss shipping lanes, sanctions relief, or uranium enrichment clauses, the Iranian people are once again being left to hang out to dry and at the mercy of the same regime that massacred them so mercilessly only months ago.
The Islamic Republic and those who rule it are good at playing this game. They have a way of dealing with the West that Western leaders still do not understand, despite all the examples and proof needed from the past. It is why Tehran has already begun framing the negotiations as a victory against the enemy.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei posted an image to X/Twitter on Saturday night as news of the deal was announced. It was loaded with symbolism from Persian history.
It depicted the relief at Naqsh-e Rostam showing the Sasanian king Shapur I standing over the defeated Roman emperor Valerian, believed to be the only Roman emperor ever captured alive.
"In the Roman mind, Rome was the undisputed center of the world," Baghaei wrote. "Yet the Iranians shattered that illusion; when Marcus Julius Philippus (Philip the Arab) marched east against Persia, the campaign did not result in Roman victory - it ended in a peace established on Sasanian terms: the emperor had to come to terms!"
It is not difficult to see the symbolism in his message. The regime wishes to project that the US, the modern Rome, has been "brought to its knees" by the regime and has been forced to seek peace with the victorious republic.
And from the regime's perspective, why would it not believe that?
Those who rule from Tehran, those who have had unfiltered access to the internet while the rest of the country has been barred from the internet for 86 days, know the truth of how much damage has been done to the regime, despite proclamations of victory.
And yet now, on the brink of a victory, Trump is pulling back. He is giving the regime time to breathe, time to regroup, and time to release its vengeance on its own people.
Trump has spent the past month and a half holding the threat of continued military action over Iran, since the six-week campaign - led by Israel and the US, which began on February 28 - ended last month.
Reports of imminent strikes came and went, and threats were issued and softened. Critics have mocked the pattern with the phrase "Trump Always Chickens Out," arguing that Tehran learned how to wait out Washington's pressure until political and economic considerations overtook strategic ones.
And it seems that moment has finally arrived.
The regime has always been patient in this way: it survives by absorbing pressure, enduring isolation, and waiting for the international community to lose focus or simply give up. Then, once external attention shifts elsewhere, it turns inward again against its own population.
And here we are again.
According to Amnesty International, Iran carried out at least 2,159 executions in 2025, the highest number recorded anywhere in the world and part of a global surge in executions driven overwhelmingly by the Islamic Republic. More than 200 executions have reportedly already taken place in 2026.
This is the regime Trump is now attempting to stabilize through negotiation.
This is the regime that shut down the internet, sealed off cities, deployed Basij forces to checkpoints, and reportedly brought in Iraqi militias to help suppress unrest.
This is the regime whose judiciary chief, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, ordered that death sentences and confiscations be issued "more frequently" in April.
This is the regime whose senior IRGC representative Abdollah Haji-Sadeghi warned Iranian youth only weeks ago that "the era of mercy is over."
Nothing about the ideological structure of the Islamic Republic has changed, despite Trump's claims of "new people" meaning a "new regime." The people sitting across the negotiating table today are not "new people."
They are the same system, the same security apparatus, the same hardliners who wish to wipe Israel off the map and call the US the "Great Satan," and the same revolutionary movement that has spent decades funding proxy warfare across the region and terrorizing its own citizens.
That is why many Iranians inside and outside the country have spent months pleading with the West not to leave the regime standing once the fighting subsided.
For months, Iranian dissidents and ordinary citizens alike have pleaded with the West not to leave the regime standing once the pressure eased. That fear is fully justified.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with wanting an end to war, but there is a difference between ending a war and pretending the underlying problem has disappeared.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly shown that it uses diplomacy to buy time rather than to moderate itself.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about exactly this years ago when opposing Barack Obama's nuclear deal, arguing that Tehran would use sanctions relief and negotiations to strengthen its military and regional capabilities while continuing its long-term strategic ambitions.
More than a decade later, it is difficult to argue that Rubio was wrong.
Once the headlines move on from the Strait of Hormuz and oil markets stabilize, the regime will still be there. The prisons will still be there, and the executions will still take place.
Will the Iranian people be willing to take to the streets again, only to be gunned down as they were in January?
For many of them, the man who once promised that 'help is on its way' now looks like another Western leader who has betrayed them, willing to leave them alone with the Islamic Republic.
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The opposition in Iran got their hopes up that America would help them. Now they are learning what happens when you trust Donald Trump.
Trump doesnt give a damn about the American people so it was always a sad fantasy to believe he would help the people of Iran.
It's like they had blinders on when he was invading Venezuela. They don't see the egg on Machado's face.
So, let me get this straight, neither you nor the Jerusalem Post know what is in the deal, but apparently you want the war to continue for "the Iranian people".
I find that hard to believe
Trump appears ready to make a deal with Iran that achieves one thing -reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The original goals of the war were ending Iran's nuclear program, ending Iran's ability to promote terrorism, and ending the regime and facilitating the people of Iran to free themselves. None of those goals are achieved by the reported deal.
Do you want the war to continue?
You of course read this all wrong.
In reality, Trump started a war with unclear objectives and wound up wasting time, treasure, and blood with nothing to show for it.
He is an incompetent buffoon. The worst PotUS in our lifetimes and likely our history.
Support of this vindictive psychopath is irrational, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.
I hope trump, bibi, vance, rubio, hegseth, and johnson all fly to tehran together to ink the peace deal ...
So he shouldn't have gone in to begin with?
Then you should be happy that it's over
I have hopes as well
Rational, patriotic Americans will only really be happy when this administration is over, and the sick fantasy some un-American bigots dreamed of, the rightwing Christo-fascist America, is lying mutilated and dismembered in a ditch somewhere breathing its last.
In every post you smear and demean half the country. [deleted][✘]
hopefully it involves maga liquidating all of their assets and leaving america before the first of next year ...
By that reasoning, if someone trashes your home then you should be happy that it is over and should have no complaints about the trashing.
Most of the nation does not support Trump.
Correct.
He obliterated their nuclear capabilities last year, so he claims. If true, he should have focused on non-military measures rather than using Iran as a deflection from the Epstein files and irresponsibly screwing up the global economy, international relationships, etc.
No, what was the reason? To re-obliterate what had been blown up a few months earlier?
what was the reason?
... to remove the epstein scandal out of the news cycle, and his iran adventure has only cost every american $125 each so far, not counting the increased costs of gas and groceries ...
Half the country does not want the rightwing conservative Christian nation that some in Trumps circle are pushing. Only about half of the half, or just less than a third of the nation appear to not have a problem with establishing their version of conservative Protestant Christianity as the religion of America. Am I demeaning those fucktards? Absolutely. Why? Because I don't consider them Americans since they have sworn fealty, not to the constitution, but to their interpretation of a bronze age farmer's visions which they are actively trying to force on the rest of our nation. They are also instigating wars with those of contrary faiths where they are now sending our young men and women to fight and die which I also believe should be criminal.
So, until that third stops trying to destroy our great nation of diversity so they can rebuild it as 'One Nation, under White Jesus!', I will continue to expose and demean them.
Oh, he was deflecting from the Epstein files?
There are more files?
I don't see anything implicating Trump in there. Do have any evidence or is this just another rumor?
of course not ...
it only cost americans billions of dollars to get a worse nuke deal with iran than obama had previously negotiated ...
You actually are telling everyone that there are no more unreleased Epstein files? What drives you to make such an obviously false claim? Do you think people will just accept what you post as truth? Especially since your claim is flat out absurd!
And 13 American lives.
Not the lives of politicians' kids, though.
And how many tens of thousands of non-combatant Iranians due to bombing but mostly due to the tyranny of the regime, countering protestors emboldened by Trump's false encouragement and promise to have their backs.
Everybody knew he'd cut off the limb behind them.
Do you know of more files beyond the 3 million?
I'm very interested to know exactly what is left
Trump took military action after Iranian protests. Obama didn't do a damned thing when they protested the first time.
You have an odd way of looking at things
We should become a pacifist nation/S
False dichotomy. A nation can avoid pointless wars in which it actually loses concessions without being pacifist. Do you argue that we should be eager to send our young people to die for no reason? If so, why?
To what end, Vic? What did Trump accomplish vs. the costs? He said he had already obliterated their nuclear program. Be specific because you apparently have information that most everyone else does not have.
Enlighten us!
We all are. Do you ignore all the reports that claim there are still millions of Epstein pages that have not been released per law?
Compiled by ChatGPT:
This blind ideological/cultish support for an incompetent, vindictive, corrupt, psychopath is appalling.
Do you also approve of the $1.776 billion slush fund?
then fly them all to The Hague
I have given a bit of advice on Truth Social. Trump should step out now, focus on the economy and right after the midterms bomb Kharg Island from end to end.
Thanks for the Jerusalem Post article, John.
Adorable.
Do you realize that you are advising Trump to cut his losses and start repairing the problems he created with the economy?
I'm advising him to put the cart before the horse.
Win the midterms, then finish up on foreign policy.
Is this a "Greatest Hits" day?
The Iran war will fester and that will greatly hurt Trump’s midterm desires. Your suggestion is illogical.
How can you want this dangerous, incompetent buffoon to continue unchecked? Do you NOT recognize the damage he has done and continues to do? Do you NOT see that you too are paying higher prices and the promise of even more price hikes based on transportation and manufacturing cost increases, tariffs, and gouging using Trump’s screwups as the excuse to raise prices?
What drives people like you to actually root for the worst PotUS in our lifetimes? It is irrational, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.
You hope it festers
You hope it expands so it will cost consumers even more money.
Trump is the worst POTUS for foreign policy, everyone hates us and no, that's NOT a good thing.
after negotiating away taiwan to china for cuba, I'd say that combined with his other blunders he's already pretty much finished the US on our foreign policy credibility, and the midterms 5 months away may be a bridge too far for an 80 year old POTUS in poor health and the intended victim of now 4 assassination attempts.
Bullshit. This is part of the stupidly false narrative posed by Trump supporters when they cannot offer even a lame defense for the words and deeds of the asshole they support.
When Trump bombed Iran's nuclear sites last year I did not criticize his actions. When he bombed them again this year, my first comment was that it is not immediately obvious why he is doing this, but that we need to get more details before opining. Once the details came in, it was obvious that Trump reacted without a well-conceived plan. The more details, the more conclusive that assessment. In result Trump has damaged the world economy, wasted countless billions of dollars, spent American blood, and triggered a slaughter of Iranian protesters (tens of thousands) who naively thought that Trump would have their backs.
I do not want to see the USA get involved in any war. But if we do, it should be for a noble cause and should be part of an alliance of responsible nations. Trump's war on Iran is both irrational and illegal. It illustrates gross incompetence, and the result, no matter what happens, is that the USA and the world are worse off than before.
Support for this incompetent, vindictive, corrupt psychopath is irrational, irresponsible, and unpatriotic.
Morning Frosty... wouldn't say everyone hates the US it's a case of we have never had so much ammunition poking fun at a US President or Americans before..
We are astounded this bogan got in again, we thought once was enough but....
Nothing surprises us or anyone else now what comes out of his mouth or his actions...
From Greenland, to the Gulf of Mexico, Iran, Cuba, world wide tariffs, including on penguins, on aluminium produced here that is US owned and the list goes on and on..
When Trumpet appears on the news you can hear a collective groan around the world and it's a case of.."Now what?"...
Seems to be an awful lot of "Canadian" tourists running around down here with very "peculiar accents" at the moment...not sure why..😁
So are a likely majority of Americans. Unfortunately, a plurality of the electorate can put a rogue piece of shit in office.
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To watch so many still pathetically defend the creator of the problems, is still quite the problem !
How supposedly intelligent competent individuals can still with a straight face (of course, unless they're gay, which is all fine and such) still defend this massive piece of incompetence, is really beyond me, as many believe they are irregardless, but for real. how they believe Trump negotiated another Art of the Deal, is just unfcknreal
key word is "supposedly"
I think they are not intelligent or competent.