Trump agrees two-week ceasefire after threatening death to a civilisation

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Donald Trump began yesterday by warning that “a whole civilisation” would die if Iran didn’t re-open the Strait of Hormuz before his 8pm EDT deadline. He ended it by declaring that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire proposed by Pakistan, conditional on the Strait being opened immediately. This suggests that Iran has not yet agreed to the conditions, leaving both sides to sail past the deadline and the world none the wiser about what happens next. It’s better than the alternative, which would have been Trump immediately making good on his threats of total violence. Many experts speculated that this would have involved attacks on civilian infrastructure, although even the Atlantic openly wondered whether the US was about to use a nuclear weapon. It is common for Trump to escalate his rhetoric before climbing down. But previous iterations of Taco (Trump always chickens out) show the climbdown does not return the world to the status quo.