# Trump's Tough Guy Aspirations

An episode of [Letters from an American](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1730358737), 12 Aug 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/210834309/d73792c42f366127b3903108577df2aa.mp3

August 10, 2026 The Iranians believe they are in a position to dictate the terms of resolving the war in Iran, Iran and Oman are negotiating terms for travel through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials laid out a series of demands that the US must meet before the Strait is reopened, The US and other countries are being forced to accept an outcome that would have been unacceptable before the war, Netanyahu openly broke with Trump over his plan for Gaza, The Trump administration has been working to reshape Latin American countries into right wing protectorates of the US, The administration is apparently looking for a cooperative leader for Cuba, Trump’s assumption of control over Venezuela appears to be the model for efforts in other countries, But the incident in which Trump left Türkiye after the NATO summer by faking the plane he was traveling because of a threat against his life, revealed the cowardice behind his tough guy aspirations, Trump protected himself by traveling in a smaller plan from Türkiye to England, leaving the press corps and staff to play decoy by traveling on Air Force One. Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ- Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe You can also find me: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: August 10th, 2026.
[0:03] SPEAKER_00: Remember when Mondays in August were lazy, quiet summer days?
[0:07] SPEAKER_00: Those were good times.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Today, though,
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Trump's war on Iran is demanding a resolution,
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: and it's crystal clear that the Iranians believe they are in a position
[0:17] SPEAKER_00: to dictate terms to the United States.
[0:21] SPEAKER_00: Iran and Oman have been negotiating terms for travel through the Strait of Hormuz,
[0:26] SPEAKER_00: which runs between the two countries.
[0:28] SPEAKER_00: Iran closed the Strait when Trump
[0:31] SPEAKER_00: and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated strikes against Iran
[0:36] SPEAKER_00: on February 28, 2026.
[0:40] SPEAKER_00: Before the war,
[0:41] SPEAKER_00: more than 20% of the world's ship-borne oil,
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: and even more than that of its ship-borne fertilizer,
[0:48] SPEAKER_00: traveled through the strait,
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: and their loss has dramatically impacted the global economy.
[0:54] SPEAKER_00: Farmers around the world are having trouble obtaining fertilizer,
[0:57] SPEAKER_00: and the price of oil,
[0:59] SPEAKER_00: and the corresponding price of gasoline and diesel, have jumped dramatically.
[1:05] SPEAKER_00: On Saturday,
[1:06] SPEAKER_00: Iranian officials laid out a series of demands the U.S.
[1:09] SPEAKER_00: must meet before they will reopen the strait.
[1:13] SPEAKER_00: They say the U.S.
[1:14] SPEAKER_00: must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw the U.S.
[1:18] SPEAKER_00: military,
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: permanently end the war against Iran and Iran's allies in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen,
[1:25] SPEAKER_00: and Iraq,
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: and never threaten nor insult Iran in any language, essentially gagging Trump.
[1:34] SPEAKER_00: They want an end to sanctions on Iran and the release of frozen Iranian assets.
[1:40] SPEAKER_00: And they want reparations, all up front as conditions for reopening the strait.
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: In the past,
[1:48] SPEAKER_00: sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets were made conditional on an end
[1:53] SPEAKER_00: to Iran's nuclear program.
[1:56] SPEAKER_00: Now, such a negotiation doesn't even appear to be on the table.
[2:00] SPEAKER_00: And Iran is asserting its right to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,
[2:05] SPEAKER_00: a choke point for global trade.
[2:08] SPEAKER_00: Tolls on ships using the Strait would provide significant funding for the Iranian regime.
[2:15] SPEAKER_00: Foreign policy scholar and diplomat Philip Gordon,
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: who served in the Biden White House, wrote, U.S.
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: acceptance of Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz is an extraordinary outcome,
[2:28] SPEAKER_00: only made conceivable by an administration that squandered legitimacy,
[2:33] SPEAKER_00: alienated allies,
[2:35] SPEAKER_00: attempted regime change in a war it had not adequately prepared for,
[2:40] SPEAKER_00: and that is being forced to accept a catastrophic outcome
[2:44] SPEAKER_00: without viable alternatives." He suggested that,
[2:48] SPEAKER_00: in other circumstances,
[2:50] SPEAKER_00: Iran's closure of the strait by brazenly attacking maritime traffic
[2:55] SPEAKER_00: and neighbor's civilian infrastructure would likely have justified and led to
[3:00] SPEAKER_00: a united global response,
[3:03] SPEAKER_00: like the U.S.-led naval escort mission during the Iran-Iraq War,
[3:08] SPEAKER_00: the global coalition that reversed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1991.
[3:14] SPEAKER_00: The multinational naval force enforcing UN sanctions in the Gulf in the 1990s,
[3:20] SPEAKER_00: or the UN Security Council sanctions on the Iranian nuclear program in the 2010s
[3:26] SPEAKER_00: that led to the JCPOA.
[3:29] SPEAKER_00: Instead,
[3:30] SPEAKER_00: he wrote,
[3:31] SPEAKER_00: the U.S.
[3:32] SPEAKER_00: and other countries are now being forced to accept an outcome
[3:36] SPEAKER_00: that would have been unthinkable before the war,
[3:39] SPEAKER_00: but seems to have become unavoidable because of it.
[3:44] SPEAKER_00: Yesterday,
[3:45] SPEAKER_00: Trump told Barack Ravid of Axios,
[3:47] SPEAKER_00: He stressed that Iran's in an economic crisis and that
[3:50] SPEAKER_00: since oil prices have come down slightly in the U.S.,
[3:52] SPEAKER_00: gas prices have eased enough to provide some relief to consumers.
[4:10] SPEAKER_00: It'll work out, Trump told Ravid.
[4:12] SPEAKER_00: It always works out.
[4:13] SPEAKER_00: It's like a chess game.
[4:16] SPEAKER_00: But Trump's mood had changed by today.
[4:18] SPEAKER_00: At 1231,
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: he claimed Iranian negotiators had never before mentioned reparations for
[4:25] SPEAKER_00: the damage done to Iran during the five-month conflict.
[4:29] SPEAKER_00: Although the Memorandum of Understanding he signed on June 17th Clearly calls for
[4:34] SPEAKER_00: the establishment of a $300 billion fund for Iran's reconstruction
[4:40] SPEAKER_00: and economic development,
[4:42] SPEAKER_00: suggesting either that Trump has forgotten what was in the agreement or didn't know.
[4:47] SPEAKER_00: Trump posted,
[4:49] SPEAKER_00: I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran for all of the people
[4:53] SPEAKER_00: that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: and many conflicts for which they are famous.
[5:01] SPEAKER_00: I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any and all future negotiations.
[5:08] SPEAKER_00: An hour later,
[5:09] SPEAKER_00: he added, Also,
[5:11] SPEAKER_00: Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people
[5:15] SPEAKER_00: of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza.
[5:20] SPEAKER_00: Later, when a reporter asked Trump when he thought the Strait of Hormuz would open,
[5:24] SPEAKER_00: he answered, Well, it's open now.
[5:27] SPEAKER_00: It's open now.
[5:28] SPEAKER_00: Look, the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy.
[5:36] SPEAKER_00: Iran apparently wants its part of the agreement up front
[5:39] SPEAKER_00: because it doesn't trust Trump to follow through once the Strait is reopened.
[5:43] SPEAKER_00: And there is reason to doubt that he will, or can, deliver on his promises.
[5:49] SPEAKER_00: Yesterday,
[5:50] SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu openly rejected the plan that Trump announced as a done deal less
[5:56] SPEAKER_00: than two weeks ago to end the fighting in Gaza.
[6:00] SPEAKER_00: On July 30th,
[6:01] SPEAKER_00: Trump posted that his Board of Peace reached a historic agreement for
[6:07] SPEAKER_00: the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza.
[6:13] SPEAKER_00: This is in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli forces there.
[6:18] SPEAKER_00: This is a monumental step toward lasting peace and security, Trump wrote.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: One year ago,
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: there was a violent raging war,
[6:27] SPEAKER_00: humanitarian crisis, and hostages kept in brutal captivity, he wrote.
[6:32] SPEAKER_00: But now there was a historic breakthrough.
[6:36] SPEAKER_00: Congratulations to all on this amazing development
[6:40] SPEAKER_00: that everybody said could never be achieved, he wrote.
[6:45] SPEAKER_00: At the time, Netanyahu expressed skepticism.
[6:48] SPEAKER_00: But today he openly broke with Trump.
[6:51] SPEAKER_00: When asked about the rejection, the White House told reporters to talk to the Board of Peace.
[6:58] SPEAKER_00: While much of the focus of the media has been on Trump's bumbling in
[7:01] SPEAKER_00: the Middle East,
[7:02] SPEAKER_00: the administration has been busy working to reshape Latin American countries
[7:07] SPEAKER_00: into right-wing protectorates of the United States.
[7:11] SPEAKER_00: In Colombia's recent election,
[7:14] SPEAKER_00: Trump endorsed a right-wing millionaire lawyer who had never before run for office,
[7:20] SPEAKER_00: Abelardo de la Esperea.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: De la Esperea holds both U.S. and Colombian citizenship and is a Republican who supports Trump.
[7:31] SPEAKER_00: De la Esperea won a close election,
[7:34] SPEAKER_00: and as soon as he took office,
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: replacing the leftist Gustavo Petro,
[7:39] SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
[7:39] SPEAKER_00: pledged a billion dollars in assistance to Colombia as part of a security package
[7:45] SPEAKER_00: to support President Abelardo de la Asparilla's administration
[7:50] SPEAKER_00: in achieving our shared goals, the White House said.
[7:55] SPEAKER_00: Tyler Pager,
[7:56] SPEAKER_00: Julian E. Barnes,
[7:57] SPEAKER_00: and Francis Robles of the New York Times reported on August 7th that
[8:02] SPEAKER_00: the administration has been looking for a similarly cooperative leader for Cuba.
[8:07] SPEAKER_00: In a search for more regime alteration than regime change,
[8:12] SPEAKER_00: they write,
[8:13] SPEAKER_00: the administration has pressed its spy agencies to identify someone in the mold
[8:19] SPEAKER_00: of Delcy Rodriguez,
[8:21] SPEAKER_00: who became Venezuela's interim president after U.S.
[8:24] SPEAKER_00: forces captured the previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.
[8:30] SPEAKER_00: U.S. officials viewed Ms.
[8:31] SPEAKER_00: Rodriguez as a pragmatist who could seamlessly assume power and would be willing
[8:37] SPEAKER_00: to work closely with them, the journalists report.
[8:41] SPEAKER_00: The plan appears to be to get Cuba to open its economy to private enterprise,
[8:46] SPEAKER_00: including U.S.
[8:47] SPEAKER_00: businesses,
[8:48] SPEAKER_00: buy oil from the U.S.,
[8:50] SPEAKER_00: and push out the Russian and Chinese intelligence operatives there.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: Central Intelligence Agency,
[8:57] SPEAKER_00: Pager, Barnes & Robles note, has secretly established a Cuba task force.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: Their New York Times colleague,
[9:07] SPEAKER_00: Adam Entous,
[9:08] SPEAKER_00: reported on August 5th that the task force includes case officers who recruit
[9:14] SPEAKER_00: and manage spies,
[9:16] SPEAKER_00: intelligence analysts,
[9:18] SPEAKER_00: officers who conduct cyber operations,
[9:20] SPEAKER_00: and officers who specialize in covert influence operations.
[9:25] SPEAKER_00: Sources told Entus that the plan appeared intended to create rifts among those
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: in Cuba's political elite to enable the rise of leaders willing to agree
[9:35] SPEAKER_00: to Trump's demands.
[9:38] SPEAKER_00: Trump's assumption of control over Venezuela seems to have been the model
[9:41] SPEAKER_00: for attempts to take over other countries.
[9:44] SPEAKER_00: Last September,
[9:46] SPEAKER_00: the Trump administration began strikes against small boats in the Caribbean
[9:50] SPEAKER_00: and Eastern Pacific that Trump claimed,
[9:52] SPEAKER_00: without evidence, were being operated by narco-terrorists from Venezuela.
[9:59] SPEAKER_00: Then the U.S. began to seize vessels allegedly carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: On January 3, 2026,
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: in a nighttime raid,
[10:09] SPEAKER_00: the Trump administration conducted airstrikes in Venezuela,
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: And removed Venezuela's president,
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: Nicolás Maduro,
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: and his wife,
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: Celia Flores,
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: taking them to New York to face federal narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: Although opponents of Maduro,
[10:26] SPEAKER_00: who had seized power after losing a presidential election,
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: cheered the raid in the belief
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: that Trump would help them put opposition candidate Enmundo González in power,
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: exiled opposition leader Maria Carina Machado,
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: In
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: fact, the administration supported Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez.
[10:53] SPEAKER_00: On January 5th, it formally recognized her as Venezuela's head of state.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: Venezuela's high court disagreed.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: It called Maduro's absence a kidnapping and determined that under
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: the country's constitution,
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: Rodriguez could act as president for 90 days,
[11:11] SPEAKER_00: a period the National Assembly could extend for another 90 days.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: But if Maduro didn't return after either 90 or 180 days,
[11:19] SPEAKER_00: the absence must be considered permanent.
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: At that point, the constitution requires elections to be held in 30 days.
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: When Rodriguez's first 90 days were over,
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: there was no public announcement that the National Assembly,
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: which is controlled by her political party, had extended her acting presidency.
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: July 3rd marked 180 days since Maduro's kidnapping.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: As Antonio Maria Delgado of the Miami Herald reported,
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: in late July,
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: the U.S.
[11:53] SPEAKER_00: Department of Justice asked the U.S.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00: District Court for the Southern District of Florida to dismiss a lawsuit filed
[12:01] SPEAKER_00: by three Americans against Rodriguez,
[12:04] SPEAKER_00: accusing the Maduro government,
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: which was well known for human rights abuses, of torture.
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: The Justice Department called for the dismissal on the grounds
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: that Rodriguez is entitled to immunity as Venezuela's head of state,
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: thus underscoring that Trump intends for her to run the country.
[12:25] SPEAKER_00: Delgado called it an extraordinary step.
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: Negotiations are underway for a new election,
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: but opposition leader Machado has been excluded from them.
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: On August 6th,
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: seven Democratic senators led by Adam Schiff,
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: a Democrat of California,
[12:42] SPEAKER_00: wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
[12:45] SPEAKER_00: reiterating that Rodriguez is still the acting president rather than the head
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: of state,
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: and putting the administration on notice that its increased support of
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: the same officials who contributed to the Venezuelan government's lengthy
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: and well-documented record of human rights abuses and violations is alarming.
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: And we urge the State Department to recommit to its longstanding practice
[13:12] SPEAKER_00: of calling attention to human rights violations committed by the Venezuelan regime
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: and exerting pressure on regime officials to end these abuses.
[13:24] SPEAKER_00: An exclusive story tonight by Dan Lamothe,
[13:26] SPEAKER_00: John Hudson,
[13:28] SPEAKER_00: Andrew Batran,
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: and Joyce Soyun Lee in the Washington Post revealed the utter cowardice
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: behind Trump's authoritarian aspirations.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: Leaving Turkey on January 8th after the NATO summit,
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: the day after he had renewed strikes on Iran,
[13:46] SPEAKER_00: Trump made a show of switching from the newly outfitted plane given to the U.S.
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: by Qatar to to an older plane that had served as Air Force One before Trump got
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: the Qatari jet.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: The journalists who were traveling with the president and some of
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: the White House staff moved with the president to the older plane for the leg of
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: the trip that would take them to Britain.
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: But the journalists report that Trump and some of his aides secretly left
[14:16] SPEAKER_00: the older plane in a container lowered into an airport catering truck
[14:21] SPEAKER_00: and were transferred to a smaller plane for the trip.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: There had apparently been credible Iranian threats against Trump's life,
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: and so officials turned to a plan to hide him, even from senior U.S. officials.
[14:36] SPEAKER_00: To do so,
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: they left the journalists and staff on the plane that would use
[14:42] SPEAKER_00: the Air Force One call sign, turning them into a decoy for an Iranian strike.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: White House staffers instructed journalists to lower their shades when they entered the plane.
[14:57] SPEAKER_00: Trump secretly re-boarded the bigger plane in Britain and was filmed coming down
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: the stairs, suggesting he had been on the flights.
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: Then he boarded the Qatari jet,
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: along with the press pool and the staffers who had been on Air Force One for
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: the trip from Turkey.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: On the flight,
[15:15] SPEAKER_00: Trump briefly spoke to reporters,
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: who asked why they had been asked to lower their window shades on
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: the previous flight.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: It was, Trump said,
[15:31] SPEAKER_00: He added that there are threats against his life all the time and
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: that I'm number one on their list before you.
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: But if I go, you go, right?
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: Perhaps someday you'll want to change professions.
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: Blue Sky National Security commenter Angry Staffer wrote, So,
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: I completely understand secreting the President of the United States away from
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: a credible assassination attempt.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: But leaving the entire Air Force One crew, press pool, and so on to play decoy is some sick.

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