Trump’s “Deal Or Else” stule of diplomacy with Iran is now a trap he built for himself - and now the consequences are closing in. Right, so Donald Trump has put “deal or else” on the record with Iran, and he has done it with a clock attached, “10 to 15 days at most”, while the US military has been moving serious hardware into the region and while American officials keep floating “limited strikes” as if that phrase makes anything limited once you light everything up. Trump says he is considering limited strikes to “boost” his negotiating position, and that single admission removes the polite story people like to tell themselves about diplomacy being a separate lane from war planning. Not when its this berk it doesn’t. A negotiation becomes a coercion exercise the second the threat is presented as a tool. That is Trump’s choice, but it fixes a prob ...