The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board does not trust President Donald Trump’s new vows to inflict economic devastation on Iran, as his war continues to flounder.
The president’s “blustering threats, alternating with claims of imminent peace and victory, are doubted by friends and foe,” wrote the board, which has been a frequent critic of Trump’s strategy in Iran, if not his ultimate goal of dismantling the regime.
The Trump administration has vowed that all international trade into Iran will be shut down in retaliation for the global chaos caused by instability in the Strait of Hormuz — a claim that, the board wrote, they can’t easily make good on.
“The question is whether all of this is a headline or a policy,” wrote the board. “Only the latter, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he’ll soon lay out, would give Tehran reason to fear.” Iran has admitted the U.S. blockade is crushing their oil exports, the board noted, and yet “Dubai-Iran trade never leaves the Persian Gulf. The U.S. Navy doesn’t touch it.”
The problem, the board continued, is that “It is no small ask of the Emiratis to cut off their dangerous and much-larger neighbor, especially when the U.S. hasn’t been able to protect them fully from Iran or restore free passage in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.A.E., America’s best Gulf ally during the war, may also fear that a financial crackdown could spark capital flight from Russia and others.”
Bessent can continue to make promises, the board said, but for now, they look pretty empty with no game plan to get there.
A full-bore economic war against Iran “can make survival more difficult for the regime, but it will take more resolve and consistency than Mr. Trump has shown in the past six months,” the board concluded.
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