Trump is desperate. How can he resolve the Iran shitshow?

[TooBigForMyBoots]

He is flailing, desperate and increasingly unhinged. Weakening the USA, alienating allies and strengthening the enemies of democracy with every step.

How can he fix this?
Can he fix it at all?

• [Title edited to correct typo]

I will try post a link. I am on laptop so might work ok.

A pro Trump thread to balance the 154 anti Trump threads! | Mumsnet

The pro Trump thread is quite funny. I haven’t got time to read the 38 pages to see if there are any positives on there! I would be genuinely interested as to if he’s done anything positive for anyone other than oil companies/owners and the richest in the US. But there are still supporters that blindly support him - so weird!

There is at least one pro Trump poster on this thread

Back to the thread title, Vance is on his way to Islamabad.

Who else? Anything on that ?

Trump was talking about them not going midweek, because security. I wondered if maybe he is not all that bothered about Vance.

It is just on the CNN feed that Trump and Netanyahu had :

"Trump and Netanyahu held "tense" call before Israel sought ceasefire talks with Lebanon

By Tal Shalev and Kevin Liptak
US President Donald Trump held a “tense” phonecall with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, according to a US and a Israeli source familiar with the conversation, which came shortly before Israel announced it would seek direct ceasefire talks with Lebanon.
Netanyahu came to understand that if he didn’t call for direct talks with Lebanon, Trump might simply declare a ceasefire, the Israeli source told CNN.
It was at least the third conversation between the two world leaders this week in which Lebanon was a key topic. On Tuesday, the two leaders spoke before Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran. According to the Israeli source, Netanyahu lobbied Trump to keep Lebanon separate from the Iran ceasefire framework.
As CNN previously reported, they spoke again a day later as Trump asked Netanyahu to scale down attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon after Israeli strikes killed 303 people on Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The third call on Thursday ultimately preceded Netanyahu’s announcement about direct negotiations.
In response to CNN, Netanyahu’s office said the description of a “tense” call with Trump was “fake news” and that it was a “friendly” discussion. “The two leaders are working in full coordination and with mutual respect,” the office said.
The White House did not respond to CNN’s request for comment."

Iran are saying Lebanon must be included. So I would think that needs sorted for Islamabad to be meaningful. And I would imagine Iran will be a bit enraged at what the Israeli Finance minister said a couple of days ago. And yes, the Minister is not PM, but Netanyahu has not sacked him.

I don't know who else is going, Vance is the only one mentioned by name as far as I know.

Witkoff and Kushner are going too. That dream team of negotiators.....

Thank you.

More details from Reuters about the Lebanon talks that I posted on a different thread:

According to Reuters, Both sides are under pressure from Trump to bring about an end to the fighting, a key demand by Iran in parallel talks due this weekend in Pakistan.

HOW DID THE TALKS COME ABOUT?

A week into the current war, Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun expressed willingness to begin direct negotiations with Israel to halt the fighting, even saying he was ready to move forward with normalizing relations.

Israel rebuffed that historic offer, deeming it too late from a government that shares its goal of disarming Hezbollah but cannot act against the group without risking a civil war.

Israel's position changed after the U.S. and Iran reached a deal on Tuesday to halt fighting. With Iran insisting that Israel cease fire on Lebanon ahead of talks in Pakistan, Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Thursday to lighten up attacks on Hezbollah, a source familiar with the matter said.

Later on Thursday, Netanyahu announced Israel would begin negotiations with Lebanon.

www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-lebanon-are-expected-hold-talks-what-do-we-know-2026-04-10/

I would pay good money for someone to tell me what makes Witkoff and Kushner (a private citizen) qualified to negotiate on behalf of the American people.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/united-states/69622/steve-witkoffs-record-should-worry-us-all

https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-garcia-investigate-kushner-raising-billions-from-middle-east-governments-while-negotiating-us-foreign-policy

People are dying though and the Iranian regime think it's a joke. We all know they care little for their own martyrs. On tv they have no shame and mention people dying as if they are pawns but forget their own people who were killed by the regime themselves in the thousands, potentially a higher number of deaths than in the conflict. Joking about him bombing bridges etc. It feels like it's a bunch of madmen all joking with people dying in the middle.

Humour, correctly, didn't go down well when talking about Gaza, Trump feels unstable and do people really want to fall in with the regime's humour so that he may be less inclined to want peace. Peace is the important thing in the area not which side makes the best jokes or says the most extreme thing.

He seems to want to monetise everything. People are caught between a repressive regime and a man who things he can talk crap and make money out of everything he does.

I would pay good money for someone to tell me what makes Witkoff and Kushner (a private citizen) qualified to negotiate on behalf of the American people.

This is something I don't understand either. I know every political system is different and government ministers, for the most part, employ their own advisors but for the presidents son in law to be directly involved in these type of state negotiations seems bizarre. Any American on here that could explain?

Indeed they should be pariahs. How quickly people have forgotten the ones slaughtered. He is handling the whole conflict badly. The whole situation is a mess and all this sadly detracts from real human suffering. The world has definately gone mad.

Peace is the important thing in the area not which side makes the best jokes or says the most extreme thing.

Absolutely but Iran are going to use whatever they have in their arsenal and they've moved the war to social media, mocking Trump and America's handling of the conflict. Anything that can weaken the Trump administration and try and influence people to lose confidence in it is their weapon.

Disclaimer: just because I understand the motivation doesn't mean I agree or support it.

Don't think you need to be American to understand how nepotism works.

"It's also a very important discussion point because it shows that the Iranian regime is not showing weakness or cowering which Trump presumed they would when they attacked and the rhetoric that he is showing in his posts is not working"

They don't care that their people are killed anyway so they won't stop just because they kill people. They'd happily shoot their own people themselves if they don't agree with whatever the regime says.

If it is about stopping them getting nuclear weapons then the bombing should focus on the infrastructure to enrich uranian, although, previously Trump did claim that he had done that.

Scoring points whilst people die is tactless whether it is about Iranians or Gazans or Israelis or Lebanese. Although it feels like on Tic Tok and the like it's all a bit of fun since the war isn't at their door. Does affect the price of things though but not enough of an effect to put pressure on really looking at negotiations.

Oh I understand nepotism, I don't understand how the American democratic system allows the American president to get away with it. How does the Democratic system support Joe public to be present at these type of negotiations. It just wouldn't happen under many other democratic systems

Yup. Massive conflict of interest too with Kushner. Saudi money.

I often think that these things also need people who know nothing about it. One from both sides sitting together in the middle. Opponents end of the table. Moderators opposite folk who don't know. (yes, I know the reports say they won't even be in the same room).

Because if the opponents have to explain their positions in a way that is understood by the "ignorants", then what they mean is clearly understood.

If that makes sense. Similar to a jury trial. But in this case the "jury" would not be passing a verdict, just making sure all is understood. It would also likely concentrate the minds of those making a case. Maybe even help them realise if their demands are a bit daft.

They are not forgotten. My thoughts are for the thousands, maybe millions who might die from this. How many was it in Iraq ? A million ? Don't lessons from history apply any more ?

Despite no doubt benefitting from nepotism, Jared Kushner is also hardly "Joe public". He was a senior advisor in Trump's first administration from 2017 to 2021.

Kushner was the primary Trump administration participant for the Middle East Peace Process, authoring the Trump peace plan and facilitating the talks that led to the signing of the Abraham Accords and other normalization agreements between Israel and various Arab states in 2020.

In 2025, Kushner returned to an informal advisory role in the second Trump administration, serving, along with Steve Witkoff, as a key intermediary in diplomatic negotiations regarding the Gaza war and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2026, he was officially appointed as a Special Envoy for Peace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Kushner

Nothing you have quoted explains Kushner's qualification for his appointments by Trump. It just states his roles. A bit similar to when Ivanka was appointed a senior advisor in her father's government with no relevant qualifications.
Kushner is a random with connections.