OAN Commentary by: Richard Pollock
Friday, April 17, 2026
Since the war with Iran began on February 28, Democrats and progressives have been on a rhetorical warpath, claiming Trump is a madman, a maniac and that he will ultimately face defeat and humiliation from Iran.
They claim the President had no war plans, no strategy and predicted he would badly lose this war.
But now, things are a bit different today as the Dow briefly spiked to 1,000, end at 800 and remarkably, the price of oil settled at $85 per barrel. There is optimism in many quarters here in DC tonight that perhaps it’s the Mullahs who are on the run.
Most dramatically, after cowardly handwringing from Europe and hysteria from Democrats, Trump’s was able to force the Mullahs to unconditionally reopen the Straits of Hormuz and apparently to yield on nuclear weapons.
It’s also important to remember that originally, the Iranians very publicly balked at meeting with the Americans. Then they suddenly decided to meet with a U.S. delegation led by Vice President J.D. Vance.
Not only is the Strait once again open for free trade, but critically, for the moment, the Mullahs are still blocked from using their own ports and are denied important oil revenue, especially from China.
There are suggestions from the White House that there may be additional talks as early as this weekend. Might there be further concessions from Tehran?
Now, perhaps, it’s important to remember that since the war began, Democrats have prophesied humiliating defeat for Donald Trump. Yet every time the President has hit the Mullahs with dramatic ultimatums, it has been Tehran that’s yielded.
This isn’t to say that the war is over and that Tehran is completely defeated. That will take time, and we most likely will see more public Presidential threats, more showdowns and more zig zags from the Oval Office.
And there are other stated goals by the President, including regime change.
But so far, for all of the huffing and puffing and dire warnings from Democrats, Donald Trump today looks like a winner and a cunning global strategist.
That’s because those who have followed him know Trump is the ultimate negotiator and dealmaker. He weaves back and forth. If you don’t believe this, read his book, “The Art of the Deal.”
So, for the moment, let’s review the Doomsday predictions from his Democratic opponents and ask, who has been right and wrong about the Iran war?
And most importantly, who has gained credibility and who has lost it?
You may recall Donald Trump gave Iran a deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern Time on April 7 to open peace negotiations with the U.S. – or else face total, civilizational destruction.
The president wrote on the morning of April 7 on Truth Social that unless “different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Otherwise, Iran’s whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Of course, we now know that within two hours of the deadline, the Iranians were the ones to yield and actually agreed to talk to Washington.
But before the deadline and Donald’s dramatic threats, here’s what Democrats had to say:
On X, the Jewish Senator and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who appears more cognitively frail with each passing day – wrote to Christians on Easter Sunday,, “Happy Easter, America. As you head off to church and celebrate with friends and family, the President of the United States is ranting like an unhinged madman on social media.”
“This is an extremely sick person,” Schumer wrote on X. “Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is. He’s threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies.”
Another Jewish Senator, Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, called Trump’s ultimatum to Iran, “dangerous and mentally unbalanced.” He said on X: “One month after starting the war in Iran, this is the statement of the President of the United States on Easter Sunday. These are the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual. Congress has got to act NOW. End this war.”
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy called him completely unhinged. He wrote on X: “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment. This is completely, utterly unhinged. He’s already killed thousands. He’s going to kill thousands more.”
“That is pure evil,” the Senator added.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has sat in on all of the administration’s classified briefings also chimed in, calling Trump’s threat toward Tehran, “twisted and unhinged.”
On April 12, speaking on CNN, Senator Warner, said Trump’s plan to blockade the Strait couldn’t possibly work. He said, “I have no idea…how he’s going to get it opened.”
Maryland’s Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Von Hollen, who has become nearly rabid about Israel and accused the Jewish state of “textbook war crimes” also sat in on classified briefings. He told reporters last month, ““What you hear behind closed doors is essentially what we’re hearing in the public domain, which is complete incoherence,”
On April 15, Democrats pushed their fourth War Powers Act in the Senate. The resolution, led by Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, would have directed President Trump “to remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a specific authorization for use of military force.”
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Duckworth said, “we cannot let this chaos continue unchecked.
Then there are the Iranians themselves.
The day before Easter, Mehdi Tabatabaei, the deputy spokesman for Iran’s president triumphally said that Iran would only open the strait after receiving billions of dollars in compensation for war damages, paid via a “new legal regime” based on transit fees.
Well, that demand has vaporized, as have nearly all Iranian threats.
Public predictions in front of TV cameras can make a political figure appear smart, savvy, informed and deeply knowledgeable. Until, of course, there comes the crash of reality.
Don’t count Donald Trump out. He is a shrewd and I would say, an amazingly artful negotiator.
And don’t take his public statements at face value. They are negotiating stances.
Unless, of course, you want to look like a public fool.
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
Richard Pollock is a former New Left activist and was a roommate with Chicago 7 defendant Rennie Davis. He understands New Left strategy and tactics. For four decades, Richard was an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C. Among his positions, he served as the senior investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller News Foundation, and at OAN. While at OAN he served in the Washington, D.C. bureau and hosted its investigative reporting specials. He is semi-retired and his posts from D.C. can be read on Substack.com
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