U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he holds a press conference at the end of his participation in the NATO leaders summit at the Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, Turkey, July 8, 2026.
Conservative Dispatch writer Kevin D. Williamson says President Donald Tump’s promise of economic destruction on Iran is just “more mush from a wimp.”
Trump is promising economic warfare “on an unprecedented scale” against Iran, or an “economic D-Day.” But Trump “makes these kinds of dumb, empty threats all the time,” said Wiliamson.
“[P]revious menacing pronouncements have run the gamut from war crimes to outright genocide — and the Iranians probably are right to shrug them off,” said Williamson. “One is reminded of the placeholder headline the Boston Globe accidentally printed over an editorial about Jimmy Carter: ‘Mush from the Wimp.’
Trump, “Natalie or whoever,” said Williamson, recently claimed “’ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”
But the safe bet, he said is “Trump ain’t gonna do jack,” primarily because Trump isn’t going to butt heads with China — the “ANY country” that surely will allow whatever it wants.
Beijing, said Williamson, is already an economic lifeline for Tehran, buying nearly all of Iran’s seaborne petroleum exports.
“Effective economic warfare against Iran would mean either confronting or co-opting Xi Jinping and his filthy little junta, and Trump, being both a bully and a coward, assumes a naturally submissive posture when he encounters a genuine strongman of the type he aspires to be.”
Unlike Trump, Williamson said XI Jinping is a tyrant who actually does murder his enemies. And he doesn’t tweet about it. Meanwhile, Trump is kicking U.S. ally South Korea for not rushing headlong into Trump’s “illegal, imbecilically conceived, and incompetently executed war in Iran,” with Trump cutting back on military collaboration against North Korea and China.
And now Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has relocated vital Pacific resource to the Arabian Sea because Hegseth has “never successfully handled a logistical challenge more complicated than delivering a keg of beer to a frat party,” according to Williamson.
“U.S. government debt hit $40 trillion this week. Trump is repaving the White House driveway with white granite. Economic D-Day? It is coming for someone — but maybe not Iran,” he added.
Trump, he added, “does not do his homework, does not plan, does not put himself at risk in pursuit of the national interest, and does not take responsibility for … anything. You know this. I know this. The Japanese and the South Koreans know this. And the Iranians know it, too.”
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