OPINION:
Nothing screams immaturity and insecurity like lashing out at your critics.
It seems clear at this point that the White House is desperate for a deal, any deal, with Iran to help lower gas prices for Americans heading into the midterm elections in November.
The memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties was a complete capitulation of the leverage the U.S. gained through its military action, and Iranian high jinks continued throughout the weekend.
Iran declared Saturday that it had once again closed the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. said ships were still moving through the waterway. Tehran demanded that the U.S. stop Israel from bombing Hezbollah, as Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into northern Israel and kill Israeli forces.
After arriving in Switzerland to start negotiations, the Iranian foreign minister refused to shake hands with Vice President J.D. Vance, despite the U.S. ending its oil blockade on the country and easing sanctions.
After the talks, Mr. Vance declared that the U.S. “made a lot of good progress. We did exactly what we wanted to do.” He said Iran had promised to readmit inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Inspector access had been permitted under President Obama’s disastrous Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. All those talks achieved was “the creation of a mechanism for further technical talks,” Qatari and Pakistani negotiators said. Wow. Stunning progress.
The White House knows it is in a politically perilous position. MAGA hard-liners and isolationists such as Mr. Vance never wanted to enter the war and are betting that the American people care more about domestic issues than winning a foreign war, especially if the war means American boots on the ground in Iran.
Those who supported President Trump’s intervention are rightly frustrated at the administration’s attempt to spin the memorandum of understanding as a success and its seeming unwillingness to finish the job the president started.
Americans hate being perceived as losers, and the U.S. surrender of its blockade, easing sanctions and blaming Israel for its self-defense without gaining anything more than the terms of Mr. Obama’s deal feels like defeat.
Enter Mr. Vance’s attack dogs.
The White House communications team, stacked with loyalists to Mr. Vance, has been unleashed to demand complete fealty of the president’s supporters to its memorandum of understanding. Any Republican critical of the deal has suddenly become public enemy No. 1 to the White House.
“For the first year and a half of the administration, we were all buttoned up. Not picking on Republicans on the same team,” a person close to the White House told Politico. “Now, there’s a new mentality in the administration.”
The White House Rapid Response team, Donald Trump Jr. and other social media influencers aligned with Mr. Vance have targeted figures such as Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, radio host Mark Levin, influencer Dave Reaboi and NewsNation’s Batya Ungar-Sargon.
The White House Rapid Response account’s attack on Ms. Ungar-Sargon — calling her a “moron” and shellacking her professionally — was petty, distasteful and especially juvenile.
“The only humiliation here is Batya desperately begging for an additional brain cell because her failing TV show is even more irrelevant than the likes of Kaitlan Collins and Fake Tapper,” the official White House account wrote on X, clipping some of her commentary critical of the deal. “Only a moron of her caliber could still doubt President Trump’s leadership.”
This was directed at a woman who has routinely defended the president’s tariffs, crude social media posts, administration picks, immigration efforts and other policy efforts that have been criticized by Democrats.
The White House signaled to Politico that the attacks on allies will continue.
“You’re going to start seeing that [targeting Republicans will] be a bit more common,” the person close to the White House told Politico. “The message is pretty clear that the White House is serious about the MOU, and their attack dogs have been unleashed.”
A house divided cannot stand. White House efforts to bully those critical of Mr. Trump’s memorandum of understanding — a bad deal that cannot be defended substantively — signal weakness, not strength.
The White House is in disarray, and things are about to get worse.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
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