President Donald Trump returns to the White House, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Washington, D.C., March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump has continually failed to spin his "ceasefire" with Iran as anything but a major capitulation, and according to famed political commentator and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, this latest "fiasco" shares an important throughline with his other biggest failures and reveals "how to defeat Trump every time."
After causing major alarm with threats to wipe out Iran's "whole civilization" if a peace deal was not accepted, Trump on Tuesday announced at the eleventh hour that a two-week "ceasefire" had been reached with Iran to allow more time for negotiations. This supposed deal appeared to fall apart quickly, however, with Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz once again after Israel launched attacks against Lebanon in defiance of the ceasefire terms. All the while, Iran has shown no signs of meaningfully changing its tune about accepting concessions.
Writing for The Guardian on Thursday, Reich, who served as the first labor secretary under former President Bill Clinton and has been an outspoken progressive voice for decades since, argued that this failure for Trump bears a key similarity to many of the other high-profile failures from his second term, including China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Greenland. He further characterized this "similar strategy" as "the latest in a host of examples revealing how to defeat Trump."
"Inside the United States, the people of Minneapolis have used them, as have Harvard University, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, writer E Jean Carroll and the law firms Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale," Reich explained. "What’s the strategy that connects them all? All refused to cave to Trump, despite his superior military or economic power."
Reich further explained that each of these figures "engaged in a kind of jiujitsu in which they use Trump’s power against him," in a way that allowed him to claim victory and move on from bothering them. He laid out in extensive detail the ways in which each cited example went about facing the president.
"Iran knew it was no match for the superior might of the US (and Israel)," Reich explained. "So it used cheap drones and missiles to close the Strait of Hormuz and incapacitate other Gulf oil installations, thereby driving up the prices of oil and gas at the pump in the US, which has put growing political pressure on Trump, months before a midterm election. Hence, Trump has been forced to pause his war."
He later added: "The comedian Jimmy Kimmel turned a political crisis into a ratings victory by using the public backlash against his suspension from ABC, which Disney owns. Since ABC reinstated him, Kimmel has continued to target Trump, and secured his contract through 2027. The writer E Jean Carroll defeated Donald Trump in two civil cases over sexual abuse and defamation, ultimately securing over $88m in damages from him – verdicts that have been upheld by federal appeals courts."
By contrast, Reich noted, every entity that caved in to Trump's pressure has accomplished little beyond increasing the leverage he has over them, and confirming that he can get them to cave in the future.
"Bottom line: there’s now a clear blueprint for how to defeat Trump," Reich concluded. "It’s available to any country, organization or person on which he seeks to impose his will: reject his demands and then use your own asymmetric power – a form of jiujitsu – to turn Trump’s power against him."
