Trump believed coming across as 'unstable and insulting' in controversial posts could 'bring the Iranians to the table'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 19 April 2026 05:44 EDT


President Trump reportedly adopted a strategy of intentionally acting unstable and insulting towards Iran, in the hopes that it would push the U.S. adversary to negotiate an end to the war.

The unorthodox tactics were reportedly behind a string of controversial posts the president made this month about the vital Strait of Hormuz, administration officials told The Wall Street Journal.

In one post, on April 5, the president ordered Iran to “open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*******, or you’ll be living in Hell,” and ended the post with “Praise be to Allah.”. In another message, this one on April 7, the president threatened that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran agreed to open the strait.

A two-week ceasefire was announced that night, less than 90 minutes before Trump’s deadline. Still, the comments alarmed critics from both parties, with members of Congress and faith leaders reportedly contacting the White House to inquire about the president’s striking comments, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-post-iran-deal-easter-b2960486.html

---

Full headline: Trump believed coming across as ‘unstable and insulting’ in controversial posts could ‘bring the Iranians to the table,’ report says

[twodogsbarking]

1. No, that is the real him.

[Vinca]

2. Trump is and has always been unstable and insulting. Which brilliant aide came up with this "strategy?"

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. I don't know, but that is exactly what it is. (n/t)

[barbtries]

32. he's decompensating and

one of the most malignant, severely damaged humans on the planet. THIS STORY is what his propagandists have come up with to continue avoiding taking any action with regard to his behavior.

[travelingthrulife]

56. It's 24th dimensional chess, don't ya know.

[LeftInTX]

66. He doesn't do this with Russia or Israel. He knows better.

He underestimates Iran and assumes Iran is unstable.

[Chasstev365]

4. Acting?

[Justice matters.]

35. Mafiadon thinks he's still in The damn Apprentice bs.

That's what "the uneducated" elected... thanks to FAUX NOI$E.

[Lovie777]

5. shithole has always been a jerk bully...................

that is his pattern and in the past it has worked. He has already threaten to obliterate Iran.

[MissouriDem47]

6. Nonsense

It was Trump just being Trump

[EarthFirst]

7. Horsesh*t

This is the worst attempt at walking back non-existent policy I’ve ever witnessed.

The more than likely scenario is an effort to stuff more gauze into a gunshot wound on cratering polling numbers in advance of the mid-terms to hoodwink the base.

What you see is what you get.

He’s losing badly and equally as bad; floundering the efforts to rebound.

Shockingly pathetic low effort; even by recent standards.

[FalloutShelter]

22. Just more sane-washing bullshit.

[Whip-poor-will]

8. Easter F bomb

In your guts....

[Irish_Dem]

9. This is just a cover story to hide the fact he is insane.

[Justice matters.]

37. "Aides" Like "Sir" with tears in their eyes...

"your base is cracking... sniff sniff, they think you're insane and blasphemous"

[LymphocyteLover]

39. that is my take... also he may well have had some notion for this strategy but he's still also fucking insane and

the idea is fucking insane

[Irish_Dem]

88. Yes even if he did use this as a strategy it is still INSANE.

[John1956PA]

92. He is trying to mimic Mel Gibson's character in the "Lethal Weapon" movies.

[chia]

87. +100000000000000000000000

[displacedvermoter]

10. Kinda like Vincent "the Chin" Gigante

wandering around in the streets in a bathrobe while running the Genovese Family.

Except Trump really is fuckin' nuts!

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Appropriating Nixon's MO for Vietnam "strategy".

The Madman Theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madman_theory

[dalton99a]

19. +1

[Deminpenn]

12. The reptilian part of Trump's brain works fine

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2026, 06:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Is he s bully? Yes. Is he diagnosably mentally ill? Yes. Is his mind showing the effects of being 80 years old? Yes

But we shouldn't make the mistake of thinking or believing Trump is still not capable of cleverness or cunning, because he is. His social media posts are just a new iteration of the "mad man" theory.

[Walleye]

13. "Unorthodox tactics"? give me a fucking break.

It’s desperation, he always does this. He knows he fucked up and he’s trying to find somebody to blame.

[Wonder Why]

14. How could you tell?

[Baitball Blogger]

15. He is coming across as insane.

[BattleRow]

36. Can't control himself..

His insanity is incontinent...

[displacedvermoter]

55. So are his bowels...

[BattleRow]

59. I have read that your gut is your second brain..

Could explain a lot..on many levels.

[displacedvermoter]

64. They call something a "Gut Instinct" for a reason

People also note "I Have Had a Belly Full", or " I Can't Stomach It", or a fear that is in "The Pit of My Stomach".

That second brain thing makes good sense.

[Javaman]

16. and what's his excuse for everything else? nt

[agingdem]

17. So his strategy for his disaster of a vanity war is he's insane?

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2026, 09:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Like this is supposed to bring the Iranians to their knees when we know and the whole world knows Trump really is a deranged shit for brains bloviating impulsive toxic clown…well I’m convinced!

[Goonch]

18. ;-{) THE DARK TRIAD

[travelingthrulife]

62. Raskin is trying to form committee to assess his mental status.

I expect this is in response to that.

[YodaMom2]

81. He's in Dark Tetrad territory.

Because he’s also got Sadism covered.

[ToxMarz]

20. "I meant to do that"

?si=N-C3h57aXTrqarQs

[BootinUp]

38. lol.

[NoMoreRepugs]

21. A fool seldom has a chance of a master stroke of genius - in the case of this Asshat NEVER.

[twodogsbarking]

23. Raping young girls is also unstable and insulting, and a felony.

[BattleRow]

31. Or older females.

Just grab em by the p--y......

[Justice matters.]

40. Same with highly classified TOP-SECRET military documents stored in...

"easily accessible to any skilled spy" mold-infested restrooms and never held accountable with the proper punishment written in the criminal code... oh, and while on the subject, the same with plotting to overthrow an election by inciting his stupids to go murder his Vice-President!

[Yonnie3]

24. Oh, it's many dimensional chess diplomacy,

or perhaps the man is actually unstable. Occam's razor might be a good fit in this case.

[IronLionZion]

25. Art of the deal

[FakeNoose]

51. A book he didn't write and probably never read ...

... however he has happily taken credit for it these past 40 years.

[Escape]

26. Trump doesn't have to pretend...

to be unstable and insulting. Thats a couple of his core personality traits.

[Botany]

27. It is no act. He has always been crazy psychopath who is a megalomaniac.

Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2026, 09:45 AM - Edit history (1)

He had to go to military school to avoid going into a juvenile detention facility after putting
a smaller child in a hospital and trying to throw a teacher out a window. Besides anybody
who makes himself look like he does and looks into the mirror and thinks that is a good look
Is batshit crazy. If his daddy had bought his way out of all kinds of things he would either
have died in Vietnam or been in prison for any # of things.

If we had an honest media he wouldn’t be in the White House right now. Thiel, Musk, Russia,
crypto boys, fossil fuel billionaires and companies, and others assured the outcome.

[llmart]

69. I think you meant to say "hadn't bought his way out".

[Botany]

72. Thanx!

Botany =

[delisen]

28. This must be a new form of mansplaining

[twodogsbarking]

29. His strategy is to make them die laughing.

[BootinUp]

30. Welcome to the Spin Zone. Nt

[mwb970]

33. I don't think this will fool or bother the Iranians.

For one thing, trump is unstable and insulting all the time.

[xuplate]

34. What a pile of horse manure.

[niyad]

41. Which explains the posts this morning about knocking out their

infrastructure?

Come on, little blood clot.

[mwmisses4289]

42. Sure, dude, sure.

Hope the universe hits you with this clue by four and hits you with it hard- Nobody believes a fucking thing you say!

[underpants]

48. He didn't say it...you don't understand it...he was joking...

The old excuse line by MAGA.
Now he’s added IT WAS A STRATEGY!!!
🙄

[Ocelot II]

43. Oh, bullshit. Unstable and insulting is all he knows; that's who and what he is.

Somebody is trying to make him seem like he's sane and acting deliberately. But now that the insanity and instability shtick clearly isn't working, he's doing more of it because he doesn't know how to do anything else. It isn't a shtick, it's just him.

[travelingthrulife]

60. Senator Raskin is moving forward with a commission to assess his mental health.

If we can get it past the anti-American Republicans, it is a pathway to get rid of him. He has also demanded an answer about his mental status from Trump's doctors.

I think this is a response to that

[LeftInTX]

73. Well, to be fair, I've never seen him do this Russia or Israel...

I think he thinks Iran is Venezuela or Greenland...

It's not even anything like Iraq or Syria. (I kinda think he thought it was like Iraq.."Oh just go in there. Kill their supreme leader and the government structure will collapse".)

[Ocelot II]

75. He's a bully as well as being insane.

He has just enough shreds of sanity left to know that he can't bully Russia or Israel. But he's always been a bully and now he's just crazier about it.

[Stpaoulboy]

44. Bullshit

That's all.

[NorCalBlue]

45. "Tipping his hand now?"

Even if this were true, and I don’t believe him, how stupid does he have to be to teletype this “tactic” to Iran before this war is over? What is the point even? To gain back support from people who thought he’d become unstable? Too late. It doesn’t explain the Jesus meme or half the other shit he posted.

[Goonch]

46. ;-{) TRUMP ADOPTS STRATEGY OF INTENTIONALLY ACTING UNSTABLE

[Bristlecone]

47. What a load of shit

This tells me that those around him know damn well that he is batshit crazy and are trying to spin his nonsense as “strategy.” Again, what a load of shit.

[Wounded Bear]

49. That's how he has gone through life...

He wants to act like it's something new, but he's always been an asshole.

[malthaussen]

50. I'm reminded, as I often am, of an old Doonesbury cartoon...

(In paraphrase). A reporter quotes the dictator du jour of some country or other, and somebody asks him "How do you know when the Great Leader is making a statement and when he's just mouthing off?" The reporter answers: "He says 'quote that, suckah.'"

So, how do we know when DJT being "unstable and insulting" is a policy decision, and when it's just DJT being his usual self?

-- Mal

[Prairie Gates]

52. It took Cheung and Miller six weeks to come up with THIS?

They're truly slipping.

[BumRushDaShow]

58. Cheung is a certifiable, foaming-at-the-mouth loon

So it takes one to know one.

[travelingthrulife]

53. Horse shit.

[Mr. Mustard 2023]

54. Oh bullshit he's trying to rehab his image after

acting so ridiculous and incoherent.

[Justice matters.]

63. That's also his "excuse" to dismiss his war "criminal INTENT" to shield himself

from any potentioal Legal CONSEQUENCE of his war-criminal threats (to get away scot-free again).

[PSPS]

61. I've heard the media testing this excuse lately, likening it to Nixon and North Vietnam

Of course it's ridiculous and just another wild attempt at slavishly sanewashing.

[Fla Dem]

65. Seriously! He thinks we're all dumb enough to believe those comments and other inflammatory statements

he's said / posted were a genius ploy to scare the Iranians into a peace deal?

[58Sunliner]

67. The lies and the lying liars behind the truth of incompetence.

So tired of his toxic, corrupt shit show.

[2na fisherman]

68. "I Call It The Weave"

Remember this term when he rambles incoherently? He had to make up this term for it to seem like it was his brilliant way of threading together many random elements mixing various subjects to finally arrive at a key point of emphasis. And this was supposed to show his vast breadth of knowledge and intellect.
BTW, when he speaks he also does that accordion thing with his hands. I believe this is a tell which he displays as a kind of subconscious defensive barrier to help him dispel any expected criticism of his obviously untruthful and insane statements.

[BattleRow]

85. Astute observation.Re: Weave

He's doing a rob and weave..

And regarding Iran,he's woven a spider's web of intractable proportions,imho.

[Hugin]

70. Just like there was no plan for the war to begin with this idea that his posts were intentionally strategic...

Is utter bullshit. Sanewashing.

Pathetic.

[AllaN01Bear]

71. no!!! STOP THE WAR THAT U STARTED

[BlueWavePsych]

74. Ya, right!

[3catwoman3]

76. What an 18-wheeler load of UTTER BULLSHIT!

How silly of us not to discern the subtle sophistication of this novel approach.

That's some real creative writing there.

[hay rick]

77. The other "Trump" card that might bring leaders to the table:

Obvious corruption. Stock and oil futures manipulation takes place in broad daylight. Multi-billion government contracts are steered to weeks-old companies infested with relatives and cronies and offering no relevant, qualifying experience. If leaders want to enable and participate in looting their own country, Kushner and Witkoff are always available to arrange the bribes.

[Talitha]

78. "adopted a strategy"

Baseheads are always full of shit.

[chowmama]

79. Well, this is just piling onto what's been said above

But there's no 'acting' about it. He is insulting and unstable.

I don't know when it's going to be forced home to him that he's now completely unable to make a deal of any kind. Everything he says is a known lie and he can/will change his mind within days, hours, or minutes. Nobody sent to negotiate for the US can guarantee that TOFU will do anything other than whatever he feels like at the moment. Once everybody knows that, he's done. And everybody knows that.

I believe that behind the scenes at the WH, he's in a complete panic, flailing around trying to find something, anything, he can win at. Maybe the bomb, maybe Cuba, maybe... You can't possibly keep ahead of imagining it, because there's literally no scheme crazy enough that he would rule it out. He's sure that there has to be something that'll bail him out of being the loser that he is.

And there's nothing.

[YodaMom2]

80. So he's not crazy, he's just stupid.

I’m so relieved. For a minute there, I was concerned…

[City Lights]

82. Sure, Jan.

He just spews more trumpshit on top of trumpshit.

[Karma13612]

83. That's because he has no clue how to negotiate.

I can’t stand what Iran and Sharia law stands for, but I know damn well their leaders aren’t as mentally incompetent as Trump.

[GenThePerservering]

84. So I guess this is GOP's Schrodinger's Asshole gambit

only they're pitifully bad at gaslighting.

[Figarosmom]

86. Oh fuck that

It's no "strategy". This is his people making excuses because he is really a lunatic. He is unstable and insulting, no question about it, that's him in a nutshell and always has been him.

[Grokenstein]

89. "I was just kidding, guys!!"

"I was just pretending to be a flatulent angry lunatic! It's all an act! A strategy! Those times I pissed and shit myself? A strategy!! (promptly voids bowels into pants) I really am a stable genius!"

[ananda]

90. That headline makes zero sense.

I didn't know the Independent was capable
of such bad journalismm.

[jeffreyi]

91. If you believe that, I happen to have a certain Strait for sale...

Bargain basement.

[Nasruddin]

93. Hide the ball

President Trump reportedly adopted a strategy of intentionally acting unstable and insulting

Someone's trying to normalize and deflect a little here.
You'd think, "Oh, maybe he has another strategy: he could be kind and empathetic; or business like and goal-oriented; or ...."

Nope. This is his one strategy, and he always starts out this way: Norm-busting, bullying, and making an outrageous ask.
He's probably done this since the beginning of his life, but I expect he learned it clearly from, and was refined in its use, by Roy Cohn a long time ago. If he's truly impaired, it might be all he has left and is kind of instinctive (ie, it's his real self).

It's followed closely or intertwined with a big bluff, and then carpet-bombing with lies (never truth - ever give anything away for free).
Wall Street seems to have gotten wise to this (or most of it) - TACO.

You know what? It's easier to lie if you're mentally impaired! And you can really believe it, which might make your act even more convincing!

[thought crime]

94. Sane-washing a psychopath

"...a strategy of intentionally acting unstable and insulting..."

Yeah, Trump intentionally acts that way - because he's an unhinged nut.

[maspaha]

95. BULL$H!T!!

That is trump…unstable and insulting!

[Karasu]

96. Considering that he's ALWAYS been unstable and insulting, that shit don't fly here.

[ruet]

97. Bull...

shit. Testbook sixth grade tactics.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

98. Like that's not just as bad as Trump *unintentionally* acting BSC toward Iran?

But I guess it's all they got even though it's utter BS.

[Qutzupalotl]

99. Crazy like a fox! ... with rabies and dementia.

[BigmanPigman]

100. 100% BS!!!!!

[RockRaven]

101. "It was an act, on purpose if perhaps in error" is pathetic spin... He's a fucking psycho.

He's not crazy like a fox. He's just an immoral pig.

And even if one were to accept that "oh, he was using madman theory" spin as true... That is tremendously unflattering spin because inherent in that explanation is the unavoidable implication that he is extraordinarily ignorant and stupid -- because that "madman theory" stuff is totally ineffective bunk and everyone knows it.

[unblock]

102. Ludicrous sanewashing. If this was true and just a strategy, then they wouldn't announce it ffs

[Doodley]

103. The only grain of truth there is that a spoilt three-year-old has a tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants

and if he does then get what he wants, it becomes learned behavior.

[Mz Pip]

104. 12 dimensional checkers

This is MAGAs excuse for his behavior. They really believe this is Art of the Deal level negotiations.

Of course they do. It’s a cult.

[IzzaNuDay]

105. In other news, water is wet.

No surprise. Folks have been saying the man has dementia….