"If Iran would have been successful, it's highly likely, I'm told by people close to [Trump] that he already would have been in Cuba. So, it's the successes that he feels like he has had over and over again is perpetuating this image of this godlike image," said @lacaldwelldc.bsky.social.
"Trump is really good about asserting his own reality ... but Americans aren't going to buy it if things don't change and change soon. And even if they do improve, the higher prices are going to remain for a while," said @jonlemire.bsky.social.
"Netanyahu needs President Trump to back him later this year because he's going to be facing voters again, and right now he's not very popular," said @michaelscherer.bsky.social.
"I think there's a parallel political peril in the United States."
"Donald Trump has been very clear that he wants to keep the blockade. He thinks the blockade is working. I think there are reasons to surmise that the blockade is having some effect. It seems to be putting pressure on the Iranians in power right now," said Stephen Hayes.
"The U.S. did successfully take up most of Iran's navy, but what the war showed us is that Iran did not need the navy to close the strait."
"The data that we've gotten from the Pentagon is quite limited. ... While there has been impact, we don't know the scope and scale of it," said @nancyayoussef.bsky.social.
Why is JD Vance going to Pakistan to negotiate a peace deal with Iran?
"This will be the most senior in-person discussion between America and Iran since the 1979 revolution," said Karim Sadjadpour.
"The Iranians actually requested to negotiate with JD Vance for a few reasons."
"Someone told him this is an easy victory in Iran. He went there. It didn't work out. Now he's looking for some other thing he can declare that will make him look like a winner."
"What [President Trump is] interested in at any given moment is 'am I winning?' and 'is this a victory?'" said @anneapplebaum.bsky.social.
"For Pete Hegseth and the American government, it's all about destroying the military infrastructure inside Iran. Lots and lots of bombs. For Iran, it's been about showing that they can destroy the global economy and have a sense of power as a result of that."
"I think the best way to make sense of it is to recognize that Iran and America have different definitions of 'winning' and what 'losing' is," said Gillian Tett.
"To go outside of our planet and the immediate vicinity to go to another world is, and should be, an inspiring event. Unfortunately, it happens at a time when we're so divided at home," @peterbakernyt.bsky.social said about Artemis II.
"It is this one thing, I think, that brings people together."
"In terms of the economic piece of this, there is a real awareness that this is a big political, a domestic political problem staring them in the face, that even if, let's say, the war wraps up next week, this is not going to be solved economically immediately," said @michellelprice.bsky.social.
"I think it's extraordinary to fire the head of the Army, the largest branch in the military, during a war and not related to the war itself, right? [Gen. Randy George] did nothing wrong within the war, and so I think it's extraordinary, raises real questions," said Idrees Ali.
"Nineteen minutes long, that address was from the White House. It really was basically a 19-minute-long Truth Social post instead of a meaningful strategy for why [Trump has] taken such a consequential decision that has plunged the global economy into turmoil," said @sbg1.bsky.social.
"It's always better for a president in a time of war to go to the public and explain what he's trying to do, to explain the goals, to explain why it's worth American treasure and lives to take this action, but it felt like a day one speech, not a day 32 speech," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.
"I don't think we should underestimate Trump's ability to at least try to declare victory just out of the blue," said Missy Ryan.
"There really is the reality of continued strife that could, you know, bring down the kind of economic reality that I think is more resonant for him."
"Donald Trump has it out for NATO. He has it out for America's European allies," said @sbg1.bsky.social.
"It's very hard to see a scenario here where this doesn't represent a big blow to American international power and standing in many ways."
"The question that becomes is, if you don’t have a new regime, if you don’t have a change in the country … does this mean that we have to do it again in five years or 10 years or one year — who knows," said @peterbakernyt.bsky.social.
"[Iran has] made clear that they're not giving up."
Is the U.S. winning the Iran war?
“As Donald Trump says, ‘we’ve won, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over,’ we think about how far we are from a kind of decisive victory that would really end this in a way that everybody can be confident it’s over," said David Ignatius.
"We should be clear, though, we have had military success," said Stephen Hayes.
"Military success in the short term, which I think we've had a lot ... I think the real question is what now? What comes next?"
"I think the omission [of the Iranian people] is part of the fact that [Trump] does not know what comes next," said Vivian Salama.
"He can say that we're winding down because he has never quite defined what the end game looks like, what victory looks like."
"As a Pentagon reporter, we have learned over two now administrations: watch what [Trump is] doing, not what he's saying," said Idrees Ali.
"The tea leaves and the movements indicate that this is going to get a lot tougher and a lot stronger really for Iran."
Is the Iran war winding down?
"You could argue that the war is winding up because [Trump] is sending more Marines in, he is increasing the pace of the attacks," said @sangernyt.bsky.social.
"I don't know what the objective is, or if one has even been ordered, but the president is clearly comfortable escalating in a way that entails greater risk for Iran, but also greater risk for the United States and the world,” Inskeep added later.
But the deployment of such a unit does not automatically mean a ground operation will take place.
"They're extremely powerful, but a couple thousand Marines is not very many in the context of a country like Iran," NPR’s Steve Inskeep told guest moderator Vivian Salama.
Around 2,500 U.S. Marines and the amphibious warship USS Tripoli have been deployed to the Middle East as the war with Iran continues.
The deployment is a part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which specializes in rapidly responding to crises and conducting amphibious landings.
"I think, you know, there were Arab diplomats flooding Washington ... saying it's going to be different this time," said Felicia Schwartz.
"Trump has been able to do things that everyone told him he couldn't do, and I think some of it was confirmation bias."
"I can say that the administration is still trying to limit the objectives and not make this look like an endless war, but it's been a mess in terms of the messaging of what this actually looks like, what an endgame actually looks like," said @markmazzetti.bsky.social.
@steveinskeep.bsky.social: "They're extremely powerful, but a couple thousand Marines is not very many in the context of a country like Iran. ... The president is clearly comfortable escalating in a way that entails greater risk for Iran, but also greater risk for the United States and the world."
