FRIGHT HOUSE

Trump’s Foul-Mouthed Oval Office Meltdown Is Leaked

Insiders say the furious president is now in “revenge mode.”

President Donald Trump flew into an expletive-laden rage in the Oval Office over his bungled war on Iran, according to people who heard the meltdown.

The U.S. and Iran remain locked in a rapidly escalating war, with American forces on a run of 13 consecutive nights of airstrikes. Tensions have peaked since Iran rejected a U.S. ceasefire proposal delivered by Iraq on Thursday.

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To make matters worse for petulant Trump, crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel for the first time since May after fighting metastasized into other parts of the region.

On Friday, Al Jazeera reported a top Iranian diplomatic official as saying the U.S. is “up the creek.”

Indeed, he has an ever-growing headache. He is increasingly frustrated by the length of the war, one that he said would be over in a matter of weeks. It’s been almost five months.

He showed this frustration when he was quizzed by a reporter about the timeline at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, after attending Sunday’s World Cup final in New Jersey. “On Iran, Mr. President, you said at the start of the war it would be four or five weeks,” the reporter said. “Now it’s nearly five months?”

Trump immediately shot back that the reporter had somehow undersold the scale of the task at hand. “This is a far bigger job that we’re doing,” he said. “We were doing a little job, stopping them from having a certain capability. Now, we’re just ending it.”

He continued with a rambling, garbled answer before stopping the interview and hot-footing it to the waiting Marine One helicopter.

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He was much clearer inside the White House, according to insiders who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. He reportedly went into meltdown mode, calling Iranian leaders “scumbags and lunatics” in a rant peppered with expletives.

Failed negotiations with Iran have made him angry, according to people familiar with the matter. One senior administration official told the Journal that the president believes that the only thing Iran understands is military force.

They said that he was in “revenge mode” against Tehran, adding that he has no bright ideas beyond continuing strikes.

“The United States signed an MOU with Iran and they broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers. President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. The 28-year-old added that Iran was paying for its behavior and would continue to do so “until they come to the table in what President Trump deems a meaningful way.”

However, a senior Iranian diplomatic source told Al Jazeera that Trump’s approach won’t work. They lamented the “administration’s coercive posturing and continued acts of aggression.”

He accused the U.S. of breaking the Memorandum of Understanding, signed in June. “The U.S. reneging on its commitments under the 17 June MoU is the cause of the current situation,” he noted, adding that Tehran considers all options to be on the table, including diplomacy and—of course—force.

Indeed, the Iranian military released a statement on Friday morning, saying that it has launched drones over U.S. bases in Jordan and Bahrain in response to American attacks on targets in Iran.

The Journal cited “people familiar with the matter” who said that Trump has complained about the Kafkaesque network of people that his diplomats must navigate to reach Iranian leadership. He has also moaned that every time he feels progress has been made at the negotiating table, Iran strikes a U.S. target, undoing all the good work, the sources said.

His headaches have been made worse by claims from Israeli intelligence that he is personally a target. Israeli sources told the WSJ earlier this month that Iran had devised a plot to kill him.

Trump referenced being “No. 1 on the kill list for Iran” when asked why he flew home from a NATO summit in Turkey on an older Air Force One instead of his new plane, the $400 million Boeing 747-800 that was gifted to him by Qatar. After initially claiming he used the older jet for “old times’ sake,” it later emerged that his new Air Force One lacks the same defensive systems—including antimissile capabilities—as the old one, and the Secret Service urged the switch.

The Journal has now been told that this threat extends to his top aides. They have been told to stop using car services as a result, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s answer appears to be to step up the war. He has told aides that he thinks he can break the Iranians’ resolve with another bombing campaign, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with Trump’s views.

“I believe he thinks he gave peace a chance,” said Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “He’s going back to Plan A, which is the military operation.”

The White House has been approached for comment.

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