I hope your weekend was productive and restful. Time for another week of who-the-heck-knows?
Weekend Trump Was Tough
What we’re calling “Weekend Trump” was snarling and growling like an angry lion. Tweet after Tweet came pouring out all weekend. They were his usual boastful and highly undiplomatic fare.
Here’s one example:
Yes, the US did fire upon a merchant ship. We’ve seen the video:
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has released video of the interdiction of the motor vessel Touska in the Northern Arabian Sea by the U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG-111). The video contains audio of the USS Spruance giving warnings to the… pic.twitter.com/bAoxgUFpgB
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 19, 2026
It’s difficult to confirm from that video if the ship was struck. But we now have video of the ship being boarded by marines on helicopters, so it seems Trump was telling the truth:
U.S. Marines depart amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7) by helicopter and transit over the Arabian Sea to board and seize M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel, April 19, after guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) disabled Touska’s… pic.twitter.com/mFxI5RzYCS
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 20, 2026
Iran responded by allegedly launching drones toward US military vessels.
🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran claims it's launched drones at U.S. military vessels in the Gulf of Oman in retaliation for the seizure of its cargo ship Touska.The U.S. Navy fired on the Touska's engine room before boarding it yesterday. Iran called it "maritime piracy" and a ceasefire violation,… https://t.co/tkdCraOjUG pic.twitter.com/Mcss7qxFbI
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 20, 2026
The talk of the town is that Trump is not really making any decisions except to purposely escalate the war because that’s what Bibi/Israel want. Here’s a reasonable summary of how Trump has opted out of every possible deescalatory path:
To understand how Trump is undermining his own diplomacy by quickly declaring victory and trying to humiliate Iran whenever Tehran takes a deescalatory step, it is instructive to remember what happened when Iran and the GCC had negotiated new guardrails for the war. (See the full account in the tweet below).
In short, Iran and the GCC were in the process of agreeing to a deal that would see the end of Iranian attacks on the GCC as long as their territories ceased being used for attacks on Iran.
Tehran would first message taking steps in this direction, followed by GCC reciprocity. But before the GCC got a chance to respond, Trump declared victory on TruthSocial, insulted and humiliated Iran, and even issued further threats of “complete destruction.
On top of that, the US/Israel also attacked a water desalination plant at Qeshm Island.
Needless to
by knitknotknow 
