President Trump is well and truly fed up with Iran. Which is really no surprise, and the president should have finished the job instead of trying to make a deal.

But here we are, and it’s déjà vu all over again. While the Iranians have been throwing their week-long funeral for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (and yes, the nepo baby Ayatollah was a complete no-show for these events, though the rumor mill is now churning that he might show his face on Saturday), they also decided to start bombing ships in the Strait of Hormuz again. This was after President Trump had extended a week to the regime for the funeral. The president was… not happy. And according to him, this means the memorandum of understanding (MOU) is officially dead.

Trump ordered the latest round of US airstrikes just hours after unleashing a torrent of fiery criticism at the Islamist regime amid the collapse of his peace deal with Tehran – calling Iran’s ruling clerics “scum,” “evil,” “loco,” and “sick people” at the annual NATO summit.

“This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran,” Trump wrote on social media, including an image of a structure in Iran’s southern port city of Chabahar engulfed in flames.

At the (NATO) summit in Turkey, Trump fumed that he no longer saw a point in continuing negotiations following Iran’s repeated violations of the terms of the deal.

“I’m not sure I want to make a deal. Let’s just finish the job,” Trump said, explaining he had abandoned his assessment that Iranian leaders were now more rational after “I got to know them.”

“They said to us, please don’t kill us during the funeral [of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei]. I said I won’t, and we didn’t do anything. And then they attacked three ships,” Trump said.

“So, I don’t like them at all. And, frankly, I think we waste a lot of time with them,” Trump said, adding, “They’re scum … and they’re evil people.”

If President Trump wants to get this over quickly, he knows what to do.

The president also threatened to seize Kharg Island, the hub for about 90% of Iran’s oil exports, and warned he could reimpose a naval blockade on Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz as he outlined a range of possible actions.

“In one day, we could knock down every single bridge in Iran. There’s not a thing they can do about it,” Trump said. “If we have to, we’ll take them out. They have desalination plants. We’ll take them out if we have to.

“Maybe we’ll take over Kharg Island.”

Seizing Kharg Island would effectively cripple the Iranian economy. Taking over the Strait of Hormuz would take away any leverage the IRGC has, and would cause them to lose face immediately with the civilian population. Could we just get this over and done? Why draw it out? Especially considering that the Iranians were being quite explicit during the funeral that there were a whole lot of people they would like to see dead, including President Trump. Which leads us to the most recent news that Iran, yet again, plotted Trump’s assassination.

Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S. that it said indicated a fresh Iranian plan to kill President Trump, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that would mark an escalation in the war between Washington and Iran.

Iran for years has vowed openly to retaliate against Trump for the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, who was a top general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the president’s first term.

Trump on Wednesday alluded to threats to his life when speaking to reporters in Ankara, Turkey.

“They want to take out the U.S. leader—me,” he said. “I’m on every list. I saw this morning, I’m on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long.”

This news was most likely why Trump swapped out his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One with the old Air Force One when he returned from the NATO summit in Turkey.

From the article: "One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intel in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot."

It's likely… https://t.co/krD9e9wvXb

— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) July 10, 2026

The full post reads:

From the article: “One of the sources said the warning came this week. Another source said the US had picked up a steady drumbeat of intel in recent weeks about possible plans to assassinate Trump, but the warning from Israel was new and concerned a specific plot.”

It’s likely that Trump having to switch planes while flying out of Turkey was directly related to this.

Turkey shares a border with Iran. My guess is Iran was devising plans to smuggle MANPADS into Turkey with the hopes of shooting down Air Force One. Trump likely had to swap back to using the old Air Force One because the new Air Force One does not have advanced missile countermeasures.

While the president can present a calm affect when it comes to threats against his life, it’s clear the attitude within the administration has altered due to Trump’s frustration and anger with Iran.

Trump’s restarted military campaign is being described internally by some administration officials as a “bitch slap” to the Islamic Republic — after Trump in May called airstrikes a “love tap” when Tehran previously attacked ships in the key waterway.

How long the bombing campaign lasts is based heavily on Iran’s response, sources told The Post. On his way back from the NATO summit in Turkey late Wednesday, Trump said he didn’t know if it would become full-scale war, but added, “we’d win it very quickly.”

The framing of the attacks as a “bitch slap” conveys the internal estimation by some administration officials that the onslaught will be painful but brief barring further escalation from Tehran.

“He still wants this thing to be over. But if Iran is shooting at ships, he’s not just gonna sit there and do nothing,” a source close to the White House told The Post.

A former White House official said that “Trump is not coordinating with anyone… he’s going with his gut.”

Some senior officials were surprised by his fiery rhetoric, but “they are not frustrated because they agree with his new hard line,” the former White House official said.

“This is all Trump, exactly as he likes it. [It is] almost impossible to tell what his next move is until he makes the decision himself.”

Meanwhile, the latest military action has been dubbed “Operation Bitch Slap” by a cohort of Trump’s advisers.

The name is “colloquial,” unlike the name “Operation Epic Fury” for the broader war, sources said.

It has a nice ring to it, but it is really time to end this. Iran has no intentions of honoring any deal that has been made. They made fools out of the Trump administration over the last few months while these talks dragged on, and the administration needs to respond in the only way that the Iranian regime understands – power. While most of us could have predicted that Iran would play for time and then do what they wanted anyway, President Trump can at least say that he gave them a fair shot to make a deal and achieve peace. Now it is time to make the shots count, and finish the job. The president does not need to drag this out. The funeral is over, the regime is clear that they want Trump dead, and this should have all been over yesterday. Now would also be a good time.

Featured image: official White House photo by Daniel Torok from June 21, 2025, cropped, public domain