The Saudis are now telling us to fuck off

[CatWoman]

Trump’s abrupt U-turn on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz came after backlash from allies

Saudi Arabia, a key Gulf ally, suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, sources say.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after a key Gulf ally suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, according to two U.S. officials.

Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on social media Sunday afternoon, the officials said, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort, the officials said.

A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, the two U.S. officials said, forcing the president to pause Project Freedom in order to restore U.S. military access to the critical airspace.

Other close Gulf allies were also caught off guard; the president spoke with leaders in Qatar after the effort had already begun.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trumps-abrupt-u-turn-plan-re-open-strait-hormuz-came-backlash-allies-rcna343845

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Chaos leadership. This country made mistakes in the past, but nothing like this.

He really doesn't know what he's doing.

[CatWoman]

2. Trump Reportedly Backed Off Hormuz Plan After Angry Response From Allies

President Donald Trump paused his operation to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz after backlash from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies, according to U.S. officials.

The president announced the pause on Tuesday evening on Truth Social, claiming it would last for “a short period of time” while the U.S. pursued a “Complete and Final Agreement” with Iran. The move came just a day after “Project Freedom” began on Monday, following Trump’s Sunday announcement that the U.S. Navy would help “guide” ships of “neutral and innocent bystanders” safely through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed,” the president wrote.

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-reportedly-backed-off-hormuz-plan-after-angry-response-from-allies/

[dalton99a]

3. Operation "I Just Pulled It Out of My Ass and You Must Do It Right Now"

[Cha]

14. Exactly. Fuck the Orwellian "freedom"

[COL Mustard]

19. Because I'm the King of the World

Gotta include that!

[D_Master81]

4. Just making it up as he goes

What leadership. Doesn’t know what he’s doing, just making it up and grasping at straws daily.

[sheshe2]

5. The man has the childlike brain of a two-year-old.

He thinks he is playing a child's game of Red Light Green Light.

My apologies to two-year-olds, they are actually far brighter than tsf could ever wish to be.

[Skittles]

6. what a clusterfuck

[tanyev]

7. There's that amazing organizational skill so admired by a Trump voter in The Villages. 🙄

Not everyone, however, has firmly chosen sides. Edward Hannan, 77, acknowledges the importance of the president's visit but won't be going, mostly to avoid the expected hours-long wait and TSA-like screening.

"I disagree with him on many things, but there are certain things that I like," says Hannan, a lawyer. "He has an organisational skill that, frankly, has not been evidenced in many of our American presidents. But, offsetting that, he is very, very aggressive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx21k3ln17ko

[rpannier]

15. Hopefully he's a retired lawyer

[NoMoreRepugs]

17. I'm assuming Hannan worked for Dewey Cheatem & Howe.

[Zorro]

27. James Carville says 20% of Americans are fucking idiots

and cannot be reached by any logic, so just forget about them.

[Grokenstein]

33. pig's "organizational skill"

consists of loading the administration with his criminal "organization."

[Prairie Gates]

8. Could the imbeciles in the White House look any smaller

Now we see why he posted the meme about Obama bowing. He was himself being forced to bow to MBS Bonesaw at that very moment.

Clown asses, the lot of them.

[Skittles]

23. it's the ART OF THE DEAL, Prairie Gates!

GET WITH THE PROGRAM!

[Amaryllis]

9. Meidas on this

[wnylib]

18. Trump's concept of being the great dealmaker

Last edited Thu May 7, 2026, 12:05 AM - Edit history (1)

that he's always bragged about is bullying people with threats and being unpredictable in his demands and reactions to events. That only works with people who can be intimidated or who have less money or have no one to stand by them.

Iran is not intimidated. They have money. They have allies. Trump's bullying method of making deals is not working.

[calimary]

29. He actually expressed that, the first time he ran for President.

I can still hear it: “I want to be unpredictable!”

I remember thinking - “uh-oh… people who like to make agreements may not appreciate that…”

[wnylib]

31. It's standard behavior for authoritarians .

[ToxMarz]

10. I don't understand how the stock market and oil markets respond almost instantly

to every 3 am post he makes. There's something really fishy going on there too. As long as I can remember they always had a delayed reaction until when they started seeing results from what the administration announced. Not up and down like a yoyo based on unverifiable social media posts from an administration proven to be unreliable, particularly on this very subject. As the saying goes, 'They're stealing'. I don't know what it is but something is very wrong.

[LilElf70]

11. We sure as hell

have one great leader, huh?


NOT!!!!!!! Not even f'ing close

[COL Mustard]

22. When it comes to cards

They hold a Strait and we have a joker. Wild.

[Fil1957]

12. I heard the Saudis ENCOURAGED him to bomb Iran. Now they're not happy with the way things are going? How could they be

so stupid?

[vapor2]

13. I thought the crown prince and trump were best buds?

[Amaryllis]

21. They were. But that was before Trump started messing with their money. The video explians it pretty well. They don't

take BS well.

[hatrack]

16. But what about the Big Red White And Blue Dome Of Freedom?

Or BubbleYum, or whatever it's made out of?

[betsuni]

20. Ironic that the Republicans' Project for the New American Century

so quickly turned into Project for the "America Who?" Century.

[AverageOldGuy]

24. Probably no relationship but . . .

Does the name “ LIV” mean anything to anyone? LIV was the pro golf association established by Trump and the Saudis — using, of course, Saudi money at Trump golf courses. The idea was that LIV would draw all the big name golfers from the US PGA into LIV thereby ensuring all pro golf would bow to Trump.

Recently a few things that I know of have happened to lead to the end of this Trump pipe dream.

1. The Saudis pulled their money out of LIV.
2. The LIV tourney at Trump’s Doral FL course was a BUST — galleries were non-existent - 100 people in the gallery on the 18th hole.
3. This weekend will see an LIV tourney at Trump’s golf course in Sterling VA. Local sporting goods stores are selling a pair of tickets TO ALL FOUR DAYS for $25.00 . . . and no one is buying. ( I live in Northern VA. Today, just to be an asshole, I went to a local sporting goods store, asked about tickets, to which the guy behind the counter replied “Are you shitting me? We cannot give the fucking things away!”)
4. LIV announced that it was shutting down by the end of the year.

So now another Trump failure to add to Trump Steaks, Trump Home, Trump Water, Trump Shuttle (airline), Trump The Game, Trump University, Trump Vodka and now Trump The Iran War.

[Hassler]

25. Bonesaw helped elect this fool. So fk him

[Melon]

26. Did they think of the plan that morning?

[Bluetus]

28. What I don't see in any of this commentary is ...

WHY.

WHY would Saudi Arabia be unhappy with a plan to escort ships through the Strait? One would think that the oil states would welcome the freedom to deliver their juice to their desperate customers, especially with everybody willing to pay double the price they paid before Trump started bombing.

So WHY would Saudi Arabia object?

I don't know, other than the fact that Saudi Arabia can ship through the Suez Canal to the European ports, and that is extremely lucrative right now. Iraq can ship north through pipeines. UAE and Oman don't have to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, so again, they are making money hand over fist.

It seems the only big losers right now are Kuwait and Qatar. Iran has limited pipeline capacity to Asia, but it also can ship out of the Gulf from Jask. That's 300K bbl/day. Plus Iran can allow its own tankers to pass through. If Iran is able to ship half its normal amount, that is still a great deal because they are getting double the price.

Is this why "our allies" (evidently including Iran) actually like the current situation?

[jeffreyi]

30. Yeah. Keep 'em guessing.

Multi-dimensional tiddley winks or something.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

32. Stable Genius at work

[ruet]

34. Kuwait as well.

Breaking news. This seemed inevitable.

[0rganism]

35. Impeach & remove F47 from office ASAP

I doubt there will ever be enough buy-in from the cabinet for 25A action, as his cabinet must be impeached & removed along with F47. At this point the only thing that keeps most of his hand-picked unserious mercenary ass-clown toadies from dying of shame at the amount of rancid ass they've had to tongue-kiss publicly is a deeply-seated self-delusion that they were sincere and the ass was worthy of the challenge. Yeah, that's not going to work out well for America's public servants, they're gonna need to turn in their badges on the way out the door. Permanently. Then they're ready to receive the prosecutions they so richly deserve.

This has to happen, and it has to be a big deal when it does. Otherwise, the USA loses all international credibility for at least a century, as we've proven our system of governance to be insufficiently stable. Impeachment and removal are the only recourses provided by the social contract that is our Constitution and the supporting body of law.

We've reached a binary decision: do we do our parts to rein-in this monstrosity, or do we cede our nation's diplomatic status completely?