The analogy of Dad yelling at the kids in the backseat feels apt, but President Trump throwing out an f-bomb when talking to the press should be taken a little more seriously than that.

As Toni covered for us, the president announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran late yesterday, lauding the chance to move towards peace – especially after Iran mustered up a scant handful of missiles to launch at the American base in Qatar in a face-saving move… which they very kindly gave us advance warning about.

President Trump said Monday the Iranian government offered “early notice” about a series of missile strikes that targeted the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, downplaying Iran’s response to the U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend as “very weak.”

“I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

The president did not specify how much early warning Iran gave or how the warning was delivered. But Mr. Trump’s message seemed to confirm speculation that Iran could telegraph its plans for retaliation in advance, giving the United States a chance to minimize the damage and avoid an escalation.

So when Iran launched off more missiles at Israel with minutes to go before the ceasefire started, it was clear that President Trump thought that this would be more of the same, a face-saving measure that they needed to “get out of their system,” as he said about Iran’s response to the United States. Unfortunately, it ended up being much more serious and deadly than that.

Seven people are now reported dead, with many more injured, after that hit in Beersheba. If no one had died, Israel would have probably ignored the final barrage of missiles. Once there were confirmed fatalities, there was no way Israel was not going to respond. This set President Trump off, and he started posting in all caps on Truth Social, with additional reminders that the ceasefire was in effect now.

Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.24.25 06:50 AM EST pic.twitter.com/BFTU8an4dh

— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 24, 2025

The Israelis bombed a radar installation near Tehran, and then turned around and flew home, after Trump demanded that they not drop any more bombs. In a later statement from the prime minister’s office, they clarified that Iran broke the ceasefire timeline twice, with one missile six minutes after the ceasefire started, and two more over three hours later. None of those did any damage (because they were either intercepted or landed without hitting anything), so Israel bombed the radar installation as a reminder that they still have air superiority over Iran.

But all of this after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect had President Trump fuming.

President Trump on Israel and Iran: "We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing." pic.twitter.com/xrztmebALZ

— CSPAN (@cspan) June 24, 2025

Trump made the comments while departing from the White House for a NATO summit Tuesday morning. Both Israel and Iran fired missiles at one another following the imposition of a ceasefire on Monday night.

“I’m not happy with Israel. You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning,” Trump said.

He continued, “We basically have two countries that have been fighting for so long and so hard that they don’t know what the **** they’re doing.”

“I’m gonna see if I can stop it,” he added.

It does seem, as best as I can tell from the timelines provided, that Israel did the bombing run on the radar installation after Trump’s comments. Obviously, the president is trying to make sure that Iran has zero excuses (as if they need any) to keep hitting Israel. Trump wants peace, but he wants peace through strength, not peace at any cost. His perspective is that Israel has proved their strength, the American objective of making sure Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb has been met, so this should be the end of it. Israel, however, will not take the deaths of their people on the chin with no response – not after October 7th. While President Trump is angry enough to lob profanities, he also has to realize what Israel’s perspective is when it comes to civilian deaths.

This is not Dad yelling at the kids in the backseat to simmer down and not make him pull the car over. This is two nations, one who has sworn that their stated goal is to wipe the other off the map, trading blows while the rest of the world watches. President Trump definitively tipped the scales in Israel’s favor with the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but it was because doing so offered the best chance for peace. Israel will likely back down now, but if Iran breaks the ceasefire again, then all bets are off – no matter how many f-bombs fly.

Featured image: President Trump in the Situation Room on June 21, 2025, via the White House X account, cropped and modified