Trump, in his regime’s serial dishonesty, has reshaped the conventions of American diplomacy in the Israeli fashion. He has turned the U.S. into the same sort of pariah — never to be trusted.
How much time passed before the Israelis undermined the ceasefire deal struck late Tuesday by the Trump administration with the Islamic Republic?
And how quickly did the Trump administration endorse the Zionists’ deliberate sabotage of that pact?
We’re talking hours.
President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of the two-week ceasefire on Truth Social, his own social network, at 6:32 p.m. U.S. Eastern time Tuesday.
By the following morning, the Zionist regime had begun heavy airstrikes over Lebanon.
A brief timeline: On Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., Trump proclaimed on social media that the ceasefire, mediated by Pakistan, excludes Lebanon.
At 10:10 a.m. Islamabad countered, insisting the agreement indeed encompasses Lebanon, accusing the Trump administration of falsehood.
Since then, mainstream Western outlets have reported confusion about whether the ceasefire covers the Israeli bombardment in Lebanon, though the details remain unclear without a written text—the deal appears to be verbal.
This brouhaha is framed as ambiguity or “confusion”—a preferred term among mainstream journalists.
Supposedly so.
Attempting to sound reasonable, J.D. Vance suggested this was “a legitimate misunderstanding” on Iran’s part.
During a visit to Budapest, Trump’s vice president said:
“I think the Iranians thought the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn’t. We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon… that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb, but that’s their choice.”
“It just didn’t.” Is there any weaker excuse?
Vance on right, at the White House, with, from left, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, Aug. 18, 2025. (White House / Daniel Torok)
On Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a statement affirming the agreement’s demand for “the cessation of war on all fronts, including against the heroic Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.”
By then, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had confirmed the same in unequivocal terms in a statement posted on “X” at 1:50 a.m. Wednesday:
“With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY….”
Could the diplomat who managed these indirect talks with such apparent care have fabricated such a critical detail? Would the council charged with Iran’s national security and foreign policy?
Unthinkable. Only Trump and his regime’s clowns consistently invent non-existent agreements, diplomatic so-called victories that never occurred, or battlefield achievements that remain pure fantasy. This includes claims that the deal omitted a clause that seems impossible to have been left out.
By Wednesday evening, the facts became clearer than the Trump administration seemed willing to admit. As The New York Times reported, “The White House had already seen and signed off on the [Pakistani] statement before Mr. Sharif posted it, according to a person briefed on the communication…”
By the time the Times disclosed this, Trump and his aides were thoroughly exposed.
To conclude this timeline, here are three brief tweets from Bibi Netanyahu’s official “X” account:
“Prime Minister’s Office: Israel supports President Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks subject to Iran immediately opening the straits and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region.
Israel also supports the US effort to ensure that Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbors and the world.
The United States has told Israel that it is committed to achieving these goals, shares [sic] by the US, Israel and Israel’s regional allies, in the upcoming negotiations. The two-weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon.”
These statements came over three hours after Sharif’s message. Notably, Trump himself contradicted his earlier commitment by denying on Truth Social that the agreement involved Lebanon, less than five hours later.
There is no ambiguity or “misunderstanding” here, despite Vance’s claims—this was a deliberate retraction in the hours following Sharif’s announcement.
This marks one of many new realities emerging from the global crisis the U.S. and Israel have caused since they renewed their military actions against Iran.
US Rendered Null as Diplomatic Partner
Washington’s credibility in international diplomacy has been eroding for decades—at least since the Cold War’s conclusion, if not earlier.
Through unrelenting falsehoods, serial betrayals, and brutal threats to eradicate entire populations and civilizations, Trump has effectively nullified the United States’ standing as a trusted diplomatic voice or negotiating partner at any global forum.
The headline of an intriguing article published recently by UnHerd reads, “America will never recover its authority: Trump has passed the point of no return.” Its author, B. Duncan Moench, opens with this brutal observation:
“Once your country goes from world policeman to the equivalent of the crazy person at the bar threatening to shoot anyone who looks at him funny, there’s really no going back.”
Moench’s stark finality resonates deeply with me. In today’s geopolitical landscape, there is scarcely a scenario where the U.S. (or “Trump’s United States,” much like mainstream media’s “Putin’s Russia”) isn’t acting either as a destabilizer, chaos agent, or both simultaneously.
All the while maintaining the pretense of being a global beacon.
Let us avoid romanticizing. Throughout the Cold War, America’s word was often undermined by deception and betrayal.
Yet I see the Soviet Union’s fall as the moment the U.S. began its decline as a reliable and credible diplomatic power.
Readers are no doubt familiar with H.W. Bush’s administration’s broken promise to Mikhail Gorbachev when Secretary of State James Baker assured the Soviet leader that NATO would not expand into former Warsaw Pact countries.
“But it was never on paper” remains the feeble excuse by those conceding this shameful duplicity while trying to minimize it.
That set the precedent for the three decades of Washington’s further treacheries toward Russia, culminating in the Biden administration’s provocations ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. I still consider that intervention unfortunate but necessary due to ongoing American duplicity.
Hasbara Mimicry
Trump on Dec. 29, 2025, receives the news he’ll be awarded the Israel Prize from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. (White House /Daniel Torok)
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s often-overlooked “special envoy” on the crises in Ukraine and Iran, claimed just before his second round of negotiations with Iran in February that the Islamic Republic was “probably a week away from having industrial bomb-making material.”
This statement foreshadowed much of the falsehoods to come.
Following the Geneva talks, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad al–Busaidi, the Omani foreign minister who facilitated those talks, told Face the Nation that “a deal is with reach.” Watch the segment. His carefully measured account carries credibility.
On Fox News March 3, five days after the U.S.–Israeli offensive began, Witkoff told Sean Hannity:
“I know this: They have 10,000, roughly, kilograms of fissionable material. That’s broken up into roughly 460 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium another 1,000 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium…. They have an endless supply of it. The 60 percent can be brought to 90 percent, that’s weapons-grade, in roughly one week…. They were proud of it. They were proud they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs… which told us they had no — no notion of doing anything other than retaining enrichment for the purpose of weaponizing.”
None of this aligns with the reality of what was accomplished in Geneva, nor Iran’s actual stance or intentions regarding nuclear weapons.
Witkoff can be dismissed as a minor irritant, but he symbolizes a significant phase in Washington’s spiral into a discredited, widely reviled diplomatic actor.
Reexamine the above passage for its broader meaning. Witkoff’s blatant misrepresentation of a delicate diplomatic negotiation echoes the hasbara propaganda that Bibi Netanyahu and his regime have spread for decades.
This mimicry holds immense importance.
Israel’s diplomatic credibility has long been nonexistent because the Zionist state has no genuine interest in truth or authentic negotiations—especially with its neighbors in West Asia.
Mendacity and betrayal have been hallmarks of the Zionists’ approach to diplomacy: We are liars. It is our way of rendering diplomacy beside the point. You can count on absolutely nothing we say: This is our power over you. Power is our only language.
This stance has rendered Israel a diplomatic nonentity. The world consistently anticipates the betrayal that follows any commitment they make.
Their recent announcement to enter talks with Lebanon, apparently in response to European pressure, exemplifies this: whatever is discussed or agreed, the bombings will continue.
Meanwhile, through weeks of relentless dishonesty, Trump has recast American diplomacy to mirror Israel’s approach—transforming the United States into an equally untrustworthy pariah, fundamentally unserious in its international dealings.
Reflecting on Israel’s pattern over the years, I’m reminded of the old fable of the scorpion and the frog. Readers will know the tale: the frog agrees reluctantly to ferry the scorpion across the river; midway, the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both. “But you promised not to sting me!” exclaims the frog. The scorpion responds: “But you knew it is in my nature to sting.”
This has been Israel’s story for ages. Now it applies to America as well. As Duncan Moench stated, there is no turning back.
Original article: consortiumnews.com
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