The American spooks still tell stories about their comically calamitous attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, a man so unkillable that he virtually outlived all his obituary writers. Some of the more preposterous CIA attempts include exploding cigars, incompetent members of the Mafia, femme non-fatales, and LSD. Alas, Castro kept on giving seven-hour-long speeches and lived to the ripe age of 90.
The recent revelations about an Iranian attempt to assassinate Donald Trump read like that laundry list, spearheaded by a Pakistani national named Asif Merchant , who was ostensibly paid a million bucks to off Trump. Merchant, who was no Jackal, was apprehended on his way to the airport. Merchant’s code words involved sartorial code words which included t-shirt (the protest to distract), the flannel shirt (stealing), and fleece jacket (assassination). Despite the clumsiness of the plot, U.S. officials treated it as a serious threat.
Iran ’s complicated relationship with the US goes back to the time when the US and the UK overthrew Mosaddeq in a coup. There was the Shah of Iran’s ousting, the hostage rescue act that inspired Argo, George Bush’s Axis of Evil speech, Obama’s attempt to normalise relations, and more recently, Trump ordering a drone strike to kill Qasem Soleimani , the commander of the Quds Force who was described as a combination of James Bond and Christina Aguilera. But where does Donald Trump tie into all this? It seems the hate story with Iran started in 1980, the first time the socialite from New York made a public comment about foreign policy when he expressed his horror at the Iran hostage crisis and couldn’t comprehend how a powerful country like the US could allow it. Perhaps the key to understanding Trump’s view of Iran is the Freudian view of how the human brain works.
Sigmund Freud’s famous model of brain function involves three entities: the id, ego, and superego. It’s most explained using the chariot analogy: the id is the horse that can run, responsible for our basic urges and desires. The ego is the charioteer, the rational part of our brain, which can guide the horse but can never fully control it. The superego is the charioteer’s father, pointing out his mistakes and guiding him, the part of the brain responsible for criticising and moralising.
Trump, on the other hand, appears to be an amalgamation of all three, a fusion of id, ego, and superego, the horse, the charioteer, and the charioteer’s father, where he cannot fathom a world that would question his worldview, and once he became President, America’s worldview. Any disagreement was seen not as a deep criticism of himself and the country he loved and that was now entwined with his psyche. As POTUS, Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal , citing its inadequacy in addressing Iran’s regional activities and ballistic missile programme. The Trump administration also implemented a “maximum pressure campaign”, targeting vital sectors of Iran’s economy, especially oil and finance, which, to his fury, didn’t secure a new, stricter nuclear deal or change Iran’s behaviour but caused significant hardship in Iran.
In January 2020, Trump authorised a drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force. This marked a dramatic escalation in US-Iran tensions . Trump justified the strike by claiming that Soleimani was planning attacks on US interests. Trump’s Iran policy appeared to be based on muscle flexing, and in the case of the Soleimani strike, demonstrating how things would go if it wasn’t his way. Iran, understandably used to no dissent on its own turf, viewed Trump as both unpredictable and uncontrollable and seems to have left no stone unturned – barring the ones they keep for stoning women without hijabs – to try and neutralise Trump.
While Iran has carried out missile strikes on US bases in Iraq, they also ran a comprehensive disinformation campaign on Trump, including running several ‘liberal’ sound news websites that mocked Trump (opioid-pilled elephant in MAGA China shop) and leaked internal documents about Trump and those close to him, including JD Vance. According to numerous reports, the hackathon is still on.
Iran knows that Trump’s return would be rather bad news, who, unlike the Biden administration, hardly pretends he wants to normalise relations. While he might be inclined to do so if a Nobel Peace Prize was on the line, the current id-ego-superego amalgamation prevents him from doing so. Trump’s return portends renewed economic isolation and increased risks of military confrontation, especially over Iran's nuclear advancements.
There’s a school of thought that views the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel as part of Iran’s attempts to destabilise any thawing of relationships between US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia that would have put Tehran on a back foot. Trump’s return would mean that there would be even stauncher backing for Israel in the Middle East. Iran has always viewed all American regimes with staunch distrust, but with Trump, there’s the added complication of not knowing what he will do. Irrespective of who wins the elections, it’s unlikely that the Trump-Iran relationship will meet the same fate as Inspector Captain Louis Renault’s and Rick Blaine’s: It certainly won’t be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
It's fair to say that the Iran regime, even more than Democrats, are worried about a Trump return.
The recent revelations about an Iranian attempt to assassinate Donald Trump read like that laundry list, spearheaded by a Pakistani national named Asif Merchant , who was ostensibly paid a million bucks to off Trump. Merchant, who was no Jackal, was apprehended on his way to the airport. Merchant’s code words involved sartorial code words which included t-shirt (the protest to distract), the flannel shirt (stealing), and fleece jacket (assassination). Despite the clumsiness of the plot, U.S. officials treated it as a serious threat.
Iran ’s complicated relationship with the US goes back to the time when the US and the UK overthrew Mosaddeq in a coup. There was the Shah of Iran’s ousting, the hostage rescue act that inspired Argo, George Bush’s Axis of Evil speech, Obama’s attempt to normalise relations, and more recently, Trump ordering a drone strike to kill Qasem Soleimani , the commander of the Quds Force who was described as a combination of James Bond and Christina Aguilera. But where does Donald Trump tie into all this? It seems the hate story with Iran started in 1980, the first time the socialite from New York made a public comment about foreign policy when he expressed his horror at the Iran hostage crisis and couldn’t comprehend how a powerful country like the US could allow it. Perhaps the key to understanding Trump’s view of Iran is the Freudian view of how the human brain works.
Sigmund Freud’s famous model of brain function involves three entities: the id, ego, and superego. It’s most explained using the chariot analogy: the id is the horse that can run, responsible for our basic urges and desires. The ego is the charioteer, the rational part of our brain, which can guide the horse but can never fully control it. The superego is the charioteer’s father, pointing out his mistakes and guiding him, the part of the brain responsible for criticising and moralising.
Trump, on the other hand, appears to be an amalgamation of all three, a fusion of id, ego, and superego, the horse, the charioteer, and the charioteer’s father, where he cannot fathom a world that would question his worldview, and once he became President, America’s worldview. Any disagreement was seen not as a deep criticism of himself and the country he loved and that was now entwined with his psyche. As POTUS, Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal , citing its inadequacy in addressing Iran’s regional activities and ballistic missile programme. The Trump administration also implemented a “maximum pressure campaign”, targeting vital sectors of Iran’s economy, especially oil and finance, which, to his fury, didn’t secure a new, stricter nuclear deal or change Iran’s behaviour but caused significant hardship in Iran.
In January 2020, Trump authorised a drone strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force. This marked a dramatic escalation in US-Iran tensions . Trump justified the strike by claiming that Soleimani was planning attacks on US interests. Trump’s Iran policy appeared to be based on muscle flexing, and in the case of the Soleimani strike, demonstrating how things would go if it wasn’t his way. Iran, understandably used to no dissent on its own turf, viewed Trump as both unpredictable and uncontrollable and seems to have left no stone unturned – barring the ones they keep for stoning women without hijabs – to try and neutralise Trump.
While Iran has carried out missile strikes on US bases in Iraq, they also ran a comprehensive disinformation campaign on Trump, including running several ‘liberal’ sound news websites that mocked Trump (opioid-pilled elephant in MAGA China shop) and leaked internal documents about Trump and those close to him, including JD Vance. According to numerous reports, the hackathon is still on.
Iran knows that Trump’s return would be rather bad news, who, unlike the Biden administration, hardly pretends he wants to normalise relations. While he might be inclined to do so if a Nobel Peace Prize was on the line, the current id-ego-superego amalgamation prevents him from doing so. Trump’s return portends renewed economic isolation and increased risks of military confrontation, especially over Iran's nuclear advancements.
There’s a school of thought that views the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel as part of Iran’s attempts to destabilise any thawing of relationships between US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia that would have put Tehran on a back foot. Trump’s return would mean that there would be even stauncher backing for Israel in the Middle East. Iran has always viewed all American regimes with staunch distrust, but with Trump, there’s the added complication of not knowing what he will do. Irrespective of who wins the elections, it’s unlikely that the Trump-Iran relationship will meet the same fate as Inspector Captain Louis Renault’s and Rick Blaine’s: It certainly won’t be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
It's fair to say that the Iran regime, even more than Democrats, are worried about a Trump return.
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