UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE

Washington lived through a day of strategic whiplash few capitals would have dared script. In the morning, Donald Trump promised on Truth Social to hit Iran 'VERY HARD TONIGHT' and announced that 'at some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela.' Kharg handles more than 90% of Iran's crude exports. Hours later came the reversal: he 'canceled' the planned strikes and claimed a 'great settlement' was 'finalized,' with a signing 'perhaps in Europe this weekend.' The American press dissected the gap between rhetoric and feasibility. The New York Times, via correspondent Jonathan Swan, recalled that America is 'dangerously low on long-range weapons' and that most of Trump's advisers oppose a ground operation to take the island. NBC News spelled out why Kharg, 15 miles offshore, is both the most tempting and the riskiest target: seizing it would cut tens of billions in annual revenue from Tehran, but introduce 'new risks to global markets.' Bloomberg noted that Hormuz oil 'sneakouts' jumped 50% as Washington and Tehran vie for control. The domestic lens dominates: with gas prices and inflation weighing on his standing, Trump is playing a game in which the threat mainly serves as negotiating leverage. The Hill summed up the sequence in a phrase: Trump 'snaps back to dealmaker after tempting all-out war.'