Letters to The Editor — January 14, 2026

Iran and Trump

Iran lies at the heart of a foreign-policy paradox that reveals how topsy-turvy Donald Trump’s ‘MAGA’ has become.

Washington’s stance toward Tehran — marked by sanctions, open threats and episodic brinkmanship — reflects sustained pressure from the Netanyahu government to treat Iran as a permanent adversary rather than a state to be engaged. This stance has coincided with Iranian claims of foreign intelligence meddling, including allegations involving the CIA and Mossad, particularly as recent protests appear to have lost momentum. Whatever the veracity of these claims, they underscore how coercion has displaced diplomacy. Iran appears to be determined to prove that it is no Venezuela.

President Trump has been strikingly candid in his disregard for international law — at times suggesting he does not need it, and similarly dismissive of the United Nations except when its veto serves immediate ends. In this sense, his presidency reads as an accumulation of America’s harsher traditions, echoing the unilateralism of Andrew Jackson, the secrecy of Richard Nixon and the interventionism of the Bush years. And on top of it, one has Mr. Trump’s obsession to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Well, ‘MAGA’ thus promises renewal but delivers inversion: restraint recedes, power prevails, and irony completes the turn.

M. Jameel Ahmed,

Mysuru