During his Thursday morning “executive time,” President Donald Trump posted a rambling, enigmatic message to his Truth Social account, leaving some critics to guess what he was talking about. The post came roughly 36 hours after he announced a ceasefire in his Iran war, and less than 24 hours after he met with the head of NATO.

He wrote:

“None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!”

Trump appeared to be blaming Iran, NATO, and perhaps his own White House advisors, but for what was uncertain.

Describing Trump’s Wednesday meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as “tense,” The New York Times on Thursday reported that Rutte “had traveled to Washington to try to assuage Mr. Trump’s anger that NATO members had refused to participate in the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and help open up the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route.”

Wednesday evening, after his meeting with Rutte, Trump also took to social media, blasting NATO:

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” he wrote. “REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”

After his meeting with the president, Rutte on Wednesday told CNN that Trump “is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies,” but noted that he was “able to point to the fact that the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights, with making sure that they live up to the commitments.”

Britain’s The Times reports that “President Trump has issued an ultimatum to European allies, demanding military support in the Strait of Hormuz within days, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported.”

Image via Reuters 

As President Donald Trump swung back and forth between threatening civilizational destruction of Iran and declaring a ceasefire, where have congressional Republicans been?

“The speaker of the House was tweeting about transgender athletes,” reports The New York Times. “The Republican senator who leads oversight of the Pentagon was promoting Trump-branded investment accounts for children. The chairman of the main foreign affairs panel in the House was posting photos of newborn bald eagles.”

“No better sight than America’s mascot hatching, a powerful reminder of the spirit and strength of our great country,” declared U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL).

Congress, which has been “vested with the power to declare war and regulate trade — remained in recess and largely in the dark,” The Times noted.

Republicans’ “relative silence also helped them avoid wading into what has become a messy intraparty debate over the war, as elements on the right criticize the president for plunging the United States into what could be a prolonged and costly conflict.”

The Trump administration has provided no official briefings to Congress.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “said he supported pursuing diplomacy but emphasized the need for congressional scrutiny of any peace agreement” — and pointed to Vice President JD Vance.

“I look forward to the architects of this proposal, the Vice President and others, coming forward to Congress and explaining how a negotiated deal meets our national security objectives in Iran,” Graham said. In another post, he added, “I prefer diplomacy if it leads to the right outcome regarding the Iranian terrorist regime.”

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) handed off responsibility to the president.

“At this point in time, I’ve got to hope and pray that the commander in chief the American people chose — we put him in charge of this — that he’ll make wise decisions,” he said in an interview.

U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), who had been posting about Trump-branded investment accounts, responded to Trump’s threat to wipe Iran off the map.

“Iran has been the worst actor on the world stage when it comes to state-sponsored terrorism that the world has ever seen,” Wicker said. “I am glad that they are about to be off the scene.”

Image via Reuters

President Donald Trump, not Iran, is the one who was “begging” for a ceasefire, and had been for weeks before he announced a “double sided” end to hostilities late Tuesday evening, according to The New Republic, citing a report in the Financial Times.

That report reveals that “the Trump administration had been privately pushing for a ceasefire for weeks to alleviate the economic strain caused by Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, and depending on Pakistan for mediation.”

Citing five people familiar with a diplomatic back channel to Pakistan, which had been negotiating for peace between Iran and the U.S., Trump had been asking for a ceasefire since March 21, 22 days after he began the war.

“This contradicts virtually everything the Trump administration has claimed about Iran—that Trump’s constant bombings and threats of extinction caused a wounded, demoralized Iranian regime to limp to the negotiating table, desperate for a deal with the U.S.,” The New Republic reported.

“And just so we set the record straight,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting two weeks ago, “because I’ve been watching the Wall Street Journal’s fake news, and all these stories that get printed like, ‘Oh, I want to make a deal.’ They are begging to make a deal, not me.”

Trump went on to call Iran “lousy fighters” but “great negotiators” who “are begging to work out a deal.”

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that,” he continued. “I don’t know if we’re willing to do that.”

Image via Reuters