Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday defended strikes on Iran’s infrastructure since the U.S. and Israel began their joint war against the country in February, saying “sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”
His comments came just hours after President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was giving Iranian leadership 48 hours to open the Strait of Hormuz or risk U.S. military strikes that “will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
Bessent defended Trump’s rhetoric, saying it’s “the only language the Iranians understand.”
27 Comments
CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca · 82 pts · 155d
Just admit it. You have no fucking clue what you're doing.
neidu3@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 155d
Or saying
TimboSlice@discuss.online · 6 pts · 155d
I bet it's difficult for him to speak with Trump's balls in his mouth..
ryper@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 155d
It's not like military operations are supposed to be the Treasury Secretary's area of expertise. He should probably just keep his mouth shut.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 154d
Financial matters aren't his area of expertise either. He's just a brainless pro-Russian Trump lackey.
devolution@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 154d
Admit you are wrong. Rotfl. Instant exile in Trumps eyes.
lemmyng@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 155d
Sometimes you have to shoot a fascist to get them to stop doing fascist shit.
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 155d
That's a rapist mentality.
This is a rapist administration.
ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 21 pts · 155d
Bessent is an idiot: he thinks Trump is really clever by using Nixon's madman strategy. What he doesn't realize is that both Trump and the Iranian clerics are genuinely mad.
Anyhow, everybody knew Bessent is an idiot before: a married gay man rooting for Trump and his MAGA cult isn't right in the head.
circuscritic@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 155d
While I will not defend theocracy, the people running Iran are anything but mad.
Brutal and repressive authoritarians? Sure.
But their strategy going back 40 years has been thoughtful and measured, which are not the qualities of people who are "mad".
The same cannot be said for Trump, obviously.
ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 15 pts · 155d
Religious people who are religious enough to forcibly turn their magical thinking into the law of the land on pain of imprisonment or death meet the definition of mad to me.
circuscritic@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 155d
You were calling them mad in the context of geopolitical strategic thought i.e. madman theory, and that's just not true.
If you need evidence that they are thoughtful and measured, then just look at this war and how it's playing out.
And if you need more evidence, please read all of the reporting regarding the latest rounds of negotiations that Trump sabotaged.
Those are not the actions of mad men.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 155d
He's going to be so confused if/when this shitty cult annuls his marriage and sends him off to some xtian reeducation camp to "cure" his gayness.
dizzle18@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 155d
60 percent of the time, it works every time.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 154d
Sometimes you have to destroy a village to save it.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 154d
America...Fuck Yeah.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 155d
I have had folk who wouldn't de-escalate until i literally punched them in the mouth or sued their companies out of existence so like, I get it but Iran has repeatedly demonstrated the opposite.
floofloof@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 155d
Scott Bessent is too inherently ridiculous a human being to take seriously, and he's not helping when he says idiotic nonsense like this.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 155d
Amen to that. Just watching him talk about fiscal policy is ridiculous enough. The guy always looks like he's in a flop sweat - he has to know he's lying like a motherfucker.
Also: Will Ferrell should bring back that character that reminds me of Scott Bessent.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 155d
No, you don't. That's literally the opposite of "de-escalation".
uberdroog@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 155d
I'll use that the next time I get pulled over.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 155d
So, it's doublespeak, then?
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 155d
I also conduct warfare like a broken simulated annealing algorithm.
I_Jedi@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 155d
I'm sure Trump is feeling giddy about kicking things off.
frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io · 1 pts · 155d
Let's start by putting his head in a guillotine and negotiate from there, shall we?
HubertManne@piefed.social · 1 pts · 155d
sure trump trumped things up but that just means we need more trump. you can't untrump things without more trumping.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 155d
You never have to do that. You choose to do that. They have lost all control of the outcome. The assholes they are fighting now are just as unhinged as they are.