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Is Donald Trump becoming the new Jimmy Carter?
The Spectator ^ | 08/10/2026 | Jacob Heilbrunn

Posted on 08/12/2026 10:12:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

One day President Trump wants to dial down hostilities with Iran. ‘We’re low-keying’ the conflict, he said on Sunday. A day later, though, he was keyed up. After Tehran demanded reparations from Washington as part of its attempt to resurrect June’s Memorandum of Understanding, Trump said on Truth Social that it was the Iranians who should:

“Compensate America for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by General Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat.

The problem is simple. For all his bluster about staring down the mad mullahs, Trump is on the run. It isn’t simply that the American military has almost exhausted its store of offensive munitions or that Iran is installing a fresh bunch of hardliners in its leadership. It is that, as an exposé in the Washington Post revealed last night, Trump, for fear of being targeted by Iran, felt compelled to adopt deceptive manoeuvres as he departed from Ankara at the conclusion of the Nato summit in early July. He hid in a Turkish catering container and secretly boarded a conventional military aircraft rather than fly on his shiny new Qatari jet – which is masquerading as the new Air Force One – or on the original Air Force One. So much for Trump’s claim that the world would no longer mock America during his presidency. If anything, he has inadvertently provided a sustained laugh track.

The most potent charge being hurled at Trump is that he is becoming the new Jimmy Carter. Carter’s presidency foundered during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, when student militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and a military rescue attempt in April the following year called ‘Operation Eagle Claw’ failed in the Iranian desert, killing eight American servicemen. Trump, who dwells mentally in the 1970s – when he was on the make, has consistently bashed Carter:

If you look back to Afghanistan or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days, they were different days. We’re a respected country again.

Oops. Now it is Trump who has become a hostage of Tehran. Inflation is rising. His poll numbers are plummeting. Faced with the possible loss of Congress in the midterm elections, his only response is that he won’t bestir himself to campaign on behalf of his Republican brethren: ‘I have a busy schedule.’ Small wonder that former New Jersey governor Chris Christie observed on ABC’s This Week that ‘Donald Trump is about to become what he never, ever wanted to be: Jimmy Carter.’

But there is a difference between Carter and Trump. One area where Carter did score a big foreign policy victory was with the 1978 Camp David Accords, which established peace between Egypt and Israel. Carter devoted considerable effort to the endeavour, and his patience paid off. Trump, by contrast, issued a half-baked peace plan for Gaza that was concocted by his Board of Peace, claiming that it was of ‘historic’ importance. It should hardly come as a surprise that on Sunday Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed it: ‘I want to be clear here: Israel is ruling out the 15-point document.’

Compounding Trump’s difficulties is a fresh round of ructions in Yemen. The Iranian-backed Houthis are not only vowing to block Saudi oil shipments through the Red Sea, but also claiming credit for a drone attack on an oil facility in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Trump is boasting that ‘we control the strait 100 per cent’. We do? As oil prices steadily increase and his popularity drops, Trump seems to be inhabiting his own dream palace.


Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of The National Interest. He lives in Washington DC


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Iran; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jimmycarter; trump
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1 posted on 08/12/2026 10:12:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Mr. President, bomb the hell out of them with spiral hams.


2 posted on 08/12/2026 10:15:21 AM PDT by kawhill (Dywedwch + Add translation Welsh-English dictionary 'Tell Us')
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To: SeekAndFind

WOW! Never be ‘jc’.


3 posted on 08/12/2026 10:16:19 AM PDT by rktman (Patriotism not 'hateriotism' !. Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🇺🇸)
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To: SeekAndFind

No and to even compare the two it to make a joke of yourself.

Neocons are no better than libs


4 posted on 08/12/2026 10:17:40 AM PDT by Skwor
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To: SeekAndFind

Jimmy Carter put us into this mess by screwing around where he didnt belong and threw up the Shah and instead put this crap in. Trump isnt changing regimes, heck he isnt really changing much of anything, the regime still stands, its the same as before just less Mullahs


5 posted on 08/12/2026 10:18:32 AM PDT by Sarah Barracuda
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To: SeekAndFind

Where was this author when Jimmy Carter was around? Oh, that’s right, he wasn’t around. He’s a millenial that just pokes at things he doesn’t understand. Keep it up dipwad.


6 posted on 08/12/2026 10:18:59 AM PDT by caver ( )
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To: SeekAndFind

“Inflation is rising”….not true: https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/08/12/cpi-july-2026/


7 posted on 08/12/2026 10:20:22 AM PDT by hotsteppa
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To: SeekAndFind

President Trump has freed every Hostage from the Biden years, including America.

Biden and Jimmy Carter are at the bottom of the list in Presidential rankings. President Trump is the G.O.A.T.


8 posted on 08/12/2026 10:22:13 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. ~ Psalm 33:12)
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To: SeekAndFind

Here we go.

Ya he’s a bumbling idiot. An inept little business man who had everything handed to him. Taken over by Iran


9 posted on 08/12/2026 10:23:09 AM PDT by stanne
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To: SeekAndFind

Whatever Trump is doing one day or the next it is nothing like what Jimmy Carter did.


10 posted on 08/12/2026 10:23:15 AM PDT by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m old enough to remember Jimmy Carter’s administration; the gas rationing, long lines at the pump and only being able to buy gas on alternate days. The price of gas at the beginning of Carter’s term more than doubled by the time he left office ...and then there was the disaster in the desert that killed so many of our brave service members.

So, no, Trump is not even close to becoming Jimmy Carter.


11 posted on 08/12/2026 10:25:55 AM PDT by Ozymandias Ghost
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To: Skwor

Wow. What a joke.

People may not like Trump because of his mean tweets and funny hair, but he has shown himself to be the single most aggressive and decisive president in my entire lifetime.

This is wholly a reflection on the author, it has nothing to do with Trump.


12 posted on 08/12/2026 10:25:57 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: SeekAndFind

President Trump,

Please keep your promise to abolish Carter’s Department of Education. Just ask Congress to pass a repeal law and let them stew in the chaos.

Seal the deal.


13 posted on 08/12/2026 10:29:10 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact. Progressivism is a suicide pact.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Seriously? You people are a bad joke.


14 posted on 08/12/2026 10:30:06 AM PDT by JoSixChip
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To: SeekAndFind
The dude should have listened to himself:


15 posted on 08/12/2026 10:31:24 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
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To: Ozymandias Ghost

Well said! I was watching some Youtube documentary, the other day, about the ‘70s CB radio craze. I had to switch it off. The Truckers weren’t trying to “express themselves”. They were looking for places that still had diesel to sell. They also wanted to know where the places were that they could make up for Carter’s ridiculous 55 MPH speed limit.


16 posted on 08/12/2026 10:31:54 AM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: Skwor
Neocons are no better than libs

Neocons are Israel Firsters who pushed for both the Iraq and Iran wars.

Trump's administration is saturated with Neocons, including Hegseth and Rubio.

17 posted on 08/12/2026 10:33:31 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: SeekAndFind

The usual communist-inspired Spectator trash...


18 posted on 08/12/2026 10:34:54 AM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is rabble-rising Sam Adams now that we need him? Is his name Trump, now?)
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To: SeekAndFind

> Is Donald Trump becoming the new Jimmy Carter? <

No, absolutely not. Carter was a weak man. Always weak, all the time. That doesn’t describe Trump in the least.

But if he’s not careful, Trump is in danger of being the next LBJ. LBJ got us into a major war while having no realistic exit strategy. And the key word there is “realistic”.


19 posted on 08/12/2026 10:35:27 AM PDT by Leaning Right
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To: Empire_of_Liberty

Breaker One Nine !
.
I’m rigging one up Now!


20 posted on 08/12/2026 10:37:40 AM PDT by Big Red Badger (Good SCIENCE is Not Faith BUT Curiosity. )
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