Letters from an American - Who is in Control?

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

July 8, 2026After the US resumed bombing Iran, Iranian forces retaliated with strikes on US facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, At the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump lashed out at Iranian leaders, later backing down, Trump’s claim that “we have the Hormuz Strait,” is not correct, and Iran appears to be calling the shots, Trump was often incoherent in Ankara, making mistakes and claiming powers he does not have, European officials at the NATO summit are coming to the conclusion that they can no longer rely on the US, Meanwhile Jared Kushner and Trump’s sons are enriching themselves, raising billions in investment money from foreign governments, mainly in the Middle East where Kushner works as a special envoy for the president. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

July 8, 26. After the U.S. resumed bombing Iran yesterday evening, Iranian forces retaliated early this morning with strikes on U.S. military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. In Ankara Turkey for a NATO summit, President Donald J. Trump told reporters that Iranian leaders are scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people and they're vicious, violent people, Trump said in his comments earlier Wednesday. Far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars. There's something wrong with them.

They're cuckoo. As far as I'm concerned, negotiations are over. The U.S. then launched another round of strikes on Iran to further degrade its ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices spiked over the course of the day, and Trump appeared to walk back. his earlier words, saying, I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly, and will only make it safer, including for oil. Oil is going to be very free, very easy, and it's going to happen very fast. We have the Hormuz strait. The boats have pulled out.

I mean, there's a gusher of oil right now. We have a lot of oil. As Tom Nichols noted in the Atlantic, the U.S. emphatically does not have the strait of Hormuz. Iran, not Trump, is in control of this war, the title of Nichols's article reads. It goes on to say that the Iranians are calling the shots in the war and are routinely humiliating the American president. The so-called ceasefire was likely intended to calm oil markets, Nichols says. Neither side ever stopped shooting. Like many other observers, Nichols noted that Trump was incoherent in Ankara. referred to Iran as the Islamic Republic of Japan and referred to Ukraine President Volodymyr

Zelenskyy as President Putin. In an off-with-with-the-heads moment, he also announced he had ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Besant to cut off all trade with Spain. According to Humaira Pamuk and David Latona of Reuters, Trump repeatedly complained about Spain, whose leftist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, refused to let the U.S. use its bases or airspace to attack Iran, even though Spain has been dramatically increasing its NATO spending. Trump then told Besson, I don't want to do any more trade with them, all right? Don't even talk to them. They're hopeless. They're bad people. They make so much money with us, and we're going to see that they make a lot less. I want no business with them. As economist Paul Krugman notes in his newsletter, cutting off

trade with Spain is simply not going to happen. First of all, Trump does not have the authority to do any such thing. Second, the U.S. actually does a lot of business with Spain, and American businesses would not accept any such cuts. But even more, it is impossible because Spain is part of the European Union. As Krugman notes, this declaration is rather like Europe declaring it is going to cut off all trade with Florida. Trump's declaration is a non-event. Krugman notes. It is not something that is real. What we should take from it, he says, is that the statement was completely crazy. In any kind of normally functioning political system, he said, in any kind of normally functioning party environment, we would have a massive,

bipartisan call across the aisle, across almost everybody, except for a handful of members of Congress who are themselves crazy, to say, okay, this guy is non-composemented. We cannot leave the fate of the United States or the world in the hands of somebody who is completely irrational, who is making demands and believing himself to have powers that he does not. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker agrees. He reposted Trump's reference to the Islamic Republic of Japan with the comment, Donald Trump is suffering from dementia. Someone needs to step in before it is too late.

Meanwhile, Jack Dech and Paul McLeary of Politico reported that European officials at the NATO summit reacted to Trump's announcement of new attacks on Iran just a day after he had praised Iranian leaders with the recognition that they can no longer rely on the United States. A European official told the political reporters, After seeing what's happening in Iran and Ukraine, we first of all have to build our own military, military might, and then everybody will respect us, Americans, Russians, Iranians, or Chinese. The more muscles you have, the less political anger you show. A German official was even more succinct.

Europeans don't take Trump seriously any longer. Meanwhile, Steve Ratner of MS Now noted today that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump's sons have raised about $13 billion in investment capital from foreign governments, mostly in the Middle East, even as Kushner is working for Trump as a special envoy to the region. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. Thank you.