Repeatedly between 2011 and 2013, the same man warned that a desperate American president would attack Iran to save face, win elections, and cover for failed negotiations.
In a November 2011 Trump video from the Trump Desk in Trump Tower — resurfaced by SNL last night — Trump laid it out plainly:
Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get reelected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran.
— Donald Trump, Nov 16, 2011
Then the tweets started:
Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin — watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.
— @realDonaldTrump, Oct 9, 2012
Don’t let Obama play the Iran card in order to start a war in order to get elected — be careful Republicans!
— @realDonaldTrump, Oct 22, 2012
I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face!
— @realDonaldTrump, Sep 16, 2013
Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly — not skilled!
— @realDonaldTrump, Nov 11, 2013
Obama never attacked Iran.
Trump has now attacked Iran twice.
- Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 hit nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
- Operation Epic Fury launched February 28, 2026 — a massive U.S.-Israeli assault that killed hundreds of children and destroyed a girls’ primary school in Minab. It also killed Supreme Leader Khamenei with his senior military commanders, and struck targets across Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah. Three American service members are dead.
Both operations were launched as failures of active negotiations.
Both were launched without congressional authorization.
The June strikes were sold as “obliterating” Iran’s nuclear program. Eight months later the obliteration was admitted as a lie, and Iran was said to be rebuilding. The failure, which for months was angrily denied, suddenly became justification for attempting again, the operational definition of a forever war lacking decisive action.
Every accusation was a confession.
Every warning about Obama is a 13-year-old self-own: attack a country you failed to negotiate with, call it strength, dare anyone to stop you.
Hypocrisy requires some residual commitment to the principle being violated. This is plain lying and projection as operational planning, by broadcasting future actions while attributing them to political targets. It’s the same mechanism that drives every authoritarian escalation: accuse the opposition of the thing you intend to do, so that when you do it, the public has already been conditioned to see it as normal political behavior.
Trump told us his vision of a desperate president abusing Iran as if a 13 year old girl at Mar-a-lago. He looked into the camera and called hitting Iran, let alone underaged girls trafficked by Epstein, a show of weakness, incompetence, and cover for personal failure.
He was describing himself.
