Despite the adoption of a ceasefire on the war in Iran, the Trump Legacy is in deep trouble – and he knows it.

Even as President Donald Trump imagines himself to be an American hero, the bottom line is that Trump consistently fails to measure up to expectations. Proposing one new war after another, the Iran conflict is far from over with every indication that Trump is still dependent on collaboration with Israel’s war crime.   

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Once thought as a humanitarian prelude to conduct negotiations to reach a peace agreement, a ceasefire can also be a tacit admission that the campaign is not going well and needs time to regroup. 

Ceasefires are frequently no more than a pause, a convenient way to stall for time whether to restock weapons, to recover the wounded, reorganize a political strategy or realign one’s forces in preparation for the next chapter of war and military hostility.  

Another purpose for a ceasefire is to sit down with its adversaries to negotiate an end hostilities or at least eke out another level of weakness. Clearly, both Trump and the Israelis were in need of weapon replenishment as well as a breather to reenergize its media strategy from the constant barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. 

While Trump backed off his civilization-ending threats in the last hour, perhaps in recognition that Epic Fury had become a bona fide disaster in every conceivable way, a Constitutional, military and economic disaster. Nevertheless, Iran and the US-Israel coalition agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Sharif serving as mediator.   

President Trump, who follows Israel’s lead, claims the ceasefire does not apply to Lebanon’s civilian population despite its deadliest battle reporting 300 civilian fatalities in one day. Pakistan’s Sharif who prepared the ceasefire document asserted that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire with Lebanon off limits to Israel.  

Israel’s history of ceasefire violations is less than of a humanitarian which has violated hundreds of ceasefires over the last 80 years.  

The morning after the ceasefire agreement, Trump did not hesitate to blame US allies for its failure to open the Hormuz Strait. He identified Japan (50,000 US troops), Australia and South Korea (45,000 US troops) who refused to sacrifice their navies in challenging the opening of the Strait.  

The President has resisted any recognition that he had been snookered by Israel to join an unprovoked war of aggression on Iran which, by its very nature, is a major war crime. Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi asserts that the US has attacked Iran “in the middle of” negotiations even as the US initiated its attack on Iran on the morning of February 28^th.  

Trump suggested that Iran’s Ten-Point Plan would be a ‘workable basis on which to negotiate’ in Pakistan on Friday as ceasefire violations were being reported. True to form, Israel immediately rejected any ceasefire and especially Israel’s contention that attacks on Lebanon were not part of the ceasefire agreement. Both Iran and the Pakistan’s Premier Sharif agreed Lebanon was included within the ceasefire agreement as well as identified in Iran’s Ten-Point Plan.

Trump attempted to squirm out of his earlier favor for Iran’s Plan since it did not have Netanyahu’s stamp of approval. Trump’s full quote was

“We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.” 

Trump continued

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated” which was interpreted by the Iran Supreme National Security Council as Trump’s agreement. 

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt “clarified President Trump Discarded Iran’s Initial 10-Point Ceasefire Proposal as Unacceptable.” While the President initially identified the Ten-Point Plan as a ‘workable basis,’ once Trump received his marching orders, the Iran plan was “unacceptable” with no critique of why the Iranian Plan was abruptly discarded “distinguished from a more reasonable proposal described as a workable basis aligned with the U.S. 15-point proposal” which the Iranians had already rejected. With a lack of  common ground between the two plans, Leavitt continued to rebuke media reports allegedly falsely portrayal based on the President’s own quotes.   

“White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that President Trump and his negotiating team deemed Iran’s original 10-point ceasefire proposal that was fundamentally unserious and unacceptable and completely discarded…. Leavitt continued “..let me be clear and correct the record:   

“The Iranians put forward a Ten Point Plan that as unserious, unacceptable and was completely discarded.  It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team ….and the idea that the President would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd. The President will only make a deal that serves the best interests of the United States of America’ – and he and his negotiating team will focus on this effort over the next two weeks so long as the Strait of Hormuz stays open with no limitations or delay.” 

Iran’s history with US negotiations has been less than positive as negotiations have served as a façade for a sudden, unprovoked attack by Israel and the US. The question arises whether Friday’s proposed ‘negotiations’ in Pakistan will be allowed to play out without unforeseen interruption or reach a logical conclusion.  

In addition, VP JD Vance is expected to join Sharif to lead the Islamabad meeting, while Trump’s appointed negotiators, real estate billionaire Mike Witkoff and son in law Jared Kushner, are in disfavor with Iran as neither have proven to be reliable or trustworthy as each have misrepresented data in earlier negotiations.    

During the first round of talks in 2025, Witkoff claimed that Iranian officials said they had enough nuclear material to build 11 nuclear bombs and that they were “proud of it,” but a diplomat involved in the negotiations said that never happened.

“I can categorically state that this is inaccurate,” a Persian Gulf diplomat involved in the negotiations told MS Now.

Witkoff was referring to Iran’s stockpile of uranium that’s enriched to 60%, which is believed to be buried under rubble following the June 2025 airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and is still below the 90% needed for weapons-grade uranium. The night before the US and Israel began bombing Iran, Oman’s foreign minister, who mediated the negotiations, said Iran was willing to give up its stockpile of enriched uranium to reach a deal.

During negotiations, Witkoff also made the false claim that Iran could have material to make a bomb within a week despite the fact that Iran is unable to enrich uranium following the June 2025 strikes that President Trump claimed “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program. 

Trump has also repeated similar claims and said on Monday that he launched the war based on the advice of Witkoff, Kushner, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

China played a role encouraging Iran to accept a ceasefire agreement and to participate in the negotiations despite Iran’s history with the US on defective negotiation process. 

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Pope Leo added his powerful voice in unusually forceful remarks by publicly calling for peace with a censure on war crimes adding that “God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars” and have “hands full of blood.” As the Iran war entered its second month, the Pope has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and end of violence in the Middle East with a global ban on all aerial bombings. 

The Pope told worshippers at the Vatican

“This is our God: Jesus, King of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.” 

On Easter, Pope Leo urged world leaders to end war raging across the planet and renounce conquest, power or domination.  

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”  

In addition, Pope Leo condemned Trump’s warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” calling threats against Iran’s population “unacceptable” and urging people worldwide to press their political leaders to end the expanding regional war.

The morning after the ceasefire, X reported

“The Pentagon summoned the Pope’s ambassador, told him the United States has the military power to do “whatever it wants,” and warned that the Church better take its side. They even invoked the Avignon Papacy, a dark chapter in history when a government used military force to bend the Church to its will. So where exactly does this end? If the Pope refuses to fall in line, what’s the next move, bomb the Vatican?”  

In response, the Pope announced

“I renew my invitation for everyone to join me for the Prayer Vigil for Peace, which we will celebrate in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, April 11, at 6:00 PM Rome time. #PrayTogether #Peace     

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Renee Parsons has been an elected public official in Colorado, an environmental lobbyist with Friends of the Earth and a staff member in the US House of Representative in Washington, DC. Before its demise, she was also a member of the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and President of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. 

She is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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