The US president published a long tirade this Monday in which he declares himself the absolute winner of the war against Iran. He attacked “The Failing New York Times”, the “absolutely horrendous” Wall Street Journal, and the “now almost defunct, fortunately, Washington Post”, accusing them of being “anti-America” outlets “rooting for Iran to win”.

According to Trump, the situation is devastating. He claims Iran’s Navy has been “completely wiped out”, its Air Force “has gone onto darker runways”, Iran has no anti-missile or anti-aircraft equipment, and its former leaders “are mostly gone”. He presents this as “Regime Change”. And closes with: the blockade is costing Iran $500 million a day.

But the facts disturb the narrative. According to Western military intelligence assessments cited by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Iran retains more than 60% of its missile launchers and 40% of its drones. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed by Iran. And the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has already vowed not to leave “the criminal aggressors” unpunished.

The contradiction with his own advisers is impossible to hide. Just two weeks ago, the New York Times revealed that CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the regime change plan “farcical” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it flatly “bullshit”. The forecasts Netanyahu sold to Trump collapsed.