Also, Trump threatens to bomb Oman, an ally.
Frustration with Trump Sets In
The Washington Post reports Frustration with Trump grows among U.S.’s Persian Gulf allies
Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly issued threats against Iran, only to withdraw them, citing progress in talks. After months of conflict, and continuing missile and drone strikes by Iran and its proxies, three officials and a former U.S. diplomat told The Washington Post, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration. Some have begun to debate the utility of continuing to host large U.S. military installations on their territory.
“Trump started this war,” one Gulf official said, “and we are paying the price.” Like others in this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject. Anger with the United States, the official said, was at its highest point since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.
The Gulf states continue to rely on Washington as a close security partner and major arms supplier, and Qatar and Bahrain host large U.S. bases. But the frustration is leading some states to consider new arrangements. These dynamics are unlikely in the near term to significantly reorder the region, analysts say, but some countries have begun to explore their options.
A mutual defense agreement signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan last week was “a signal to the U.S.,” a senior European official said.
“There has been frustration from the get-go,” said Firas Maksad, director for the Middle East and North Africa practice at the Eurasia Group. U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf, he said, feel they were “unnecessarily entangled” in a war that Trump is now struggling to resolve.
Maksad, who has extensive contacts within Gulf leadership, said Trump’s Iran policy is often described in the region as “erratic” and “unpredictable.”
Anna Jacobs, a fellow with the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, said there has been “diminished trust” of the U.S. since the start of the war. U.S. allies think the country’s “conduct in the region is making them less safe, not more safe,” she said.
“At the beginning of the war, they were — I don’t want to say, supportive — but honestly, they were not totally against the war,” the senior European official said. The thinking in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, he said, was that a quick, definitive victory could prove beneficial.
That began to shift in the lead-up to the first round of talks between Iran and the United States in April, the official said, when it became clear that not only would the Iranian regime not fall, but it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
In the months since, Trump’s inconsistency has alarmed the Gulf, said Bader Al-Saif, an assistant professor of history at Kuwait University.
“Even before all this back and forth with Trump, there was no clear strategy,” said Al-Saif, a fellow of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He cited the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran in June.
“The MOU was a joke,” he said. The agreement didn’t address the Gulf states’ top concerns, including Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal or Tehran’s support for proxy forces.
“Those terms were not terms of our liking,” Al-Saif said, “and that’s why it died out sooner than later.”
Was the MOU a Joke?
No. It was a necessary Trump capitulation, unfortunately temporary due to Trump’s incompetence.
Trump’s implementation of the MOU indeed was the joke. Trump expected Iran to honor things it never agreed to.
Trump lost the war.
The MOU provided Trump a good opportunity to cut losses.
The price of gasoline would have dropped and he was free to hype up the deal, no matter how bad.
Instead, true to self, Trump wanted more than he could get. As a result, the strait is blocked again, oil is shut off, and the price of gasoline and diesel is headed back up.
The result is now so bad that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration.
Iran is laughing at the incompetence of Trump.
Meanwhile in Oman
Comments on Oman
Illegal Orders
One assumes this is just the usual Trump BS. But perhaps it’s worth saying that if Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.
How Trump Thinks
Total Embarassment
Seriously, did you vote for this?
Related Posts
August 15, 2026: Which Party Will Win the Senate? Silver Bulletin Tipping Point Odds
Nate Silver sees the Senate as a tossup. I disagree.
August 17, 2026: Rising Bond Yields Are a Warning to the US Treasury and the Fed
The Fed is not in a good spot.
August 16, 2026: Trump Shuns South Korea, Touts “Very Good Relationship” with North Korea
Is there a dictator Trump doesn’t like?
The GCC, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are totally frustated with US because they are totally blocked except partially relieved Saudi when Iran is blocked by US navy. Their economy is in free fall together with Iranian economy. And their infrastructure and water plant will be attacked if Iran is attacked. So their economy and infrastructure are totally at the mercy and wisdom of US. Not strange they are rethinking to ally with US.
The longer US is blocking Iran, the same thing happened to them.
wsj
Aug. 12, 2026 9:00 pm ET
Thousands of North Korean operatives are using fake and stolen identities to land remote jobs at U.S. companies—funneling hundreds of millions of dollars back to the regime.
Leaked data, interviews and never-before-seen videos obtained by The Wall Street Journal reveal how a single team of these workers infiltrated at least eight companies in just a few months.
I don’t think there is any question Trump has greatly weakened the world perception that the US is an unstoppable Power. Iran has shown that it doesn’t take allot to force the US’s hand, you just have to find the weak spot and in this case it’s Oil. It really is almost a checkmate for Iran. The US Military could go in and level Iran but in the process Iran could take out most of the Oil production of the Middle East which would throw the entire World into a Depression or worse assuming Agriculture and Transportation is greatly effected due to fuel shortages.
I wonder if the Maga group has finally realized maybe there were better choices, you know like Ron Desantis? That being said the Democrats have become a party ranging on one end from Socialists to Marxists to outright Communist lunatics on the other end. This is not the Bill Clinton Democrats anymore.
Tell the ME countries, “help is on the way!”
meanwhile: Physics PhDs Are Leaving the US at a Record-high Rate
https://www.aip.org/fyi/physics-phds-are-leaving-the-us-at-a-record-high-rate
There’s an interesting commentary video about the 2025 Annual Report of the “Financial Stability Oversight Council” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mwH3OTBXk
It throws a little bit of light in some dynamics. Some Greek analysts have been saying similar things for years, though from a different angle, and in the past I thought they were exaggerating (about the involvement of the British in both the Ukraine and Iran wars).
“Seriously, did you vote for this?”
No. I voted for the “Peace candidate” (whose lie was bolstered by a relatively non-interventionist 1st term–he even ordered US troops out of Syria, though the Pentagon ignored him). Just like we voted for the “Peace candidate” Obama, who killed thousands in the Middle East & Libya. Just like we voted for “kinder, gentler foreign policy” Bush II. Did Biden advertise he was going to foment the Ukraine war?
Voting seems like something the Epstein class stages just to convince the sheep they’ve endorsed their subsequent loss of freedom.
“Voting seems like something the Epstein class stages just to convince the sheep they’ve endorsed their subsequent loss of freedom.”
Of course. Voting is done to make the masses feel like they have a say, sort of like those kiddie car seats that have a steering wheel so the little tyke can think he’s driving.
Trump is a liar. You were well aware of that when you voted for him.
“If Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.”
What a beautiful summer child!
“if Trump issued an order to bomb Oman because he’s peeved at them, it would be an illegal order which should not be obeyed.”
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the authoritarian structure of the US Empire’s military is such that a general refusing to follow the order–whether quitting under protest or being fired–loses his pension. And the people who have climbed into the upper ranks of the Dept. of WAR are not likely to be high enough on the integrity scale to sacrifice their pensions. Just to save the lives of a lot of purely innocent people.
Of course, those same generals would shrug at their oath in order to keep their pensions. That is, they are all petit bourgeois traitors.
Trump has threatened Denmark over Greenland and Canada over a multitude of things. Threatening Oman is just par for the course and not to be taken seriously.
Think our original reason there was to fill the vacuum left by the British. To keep the russians out. We have been stuck in the middle ever since. A bad guy from the Iranians to rally their people around. And a buffer for everyone else. Better for iran to target us bases than oil infrastructure. Better to kill american military than our ( pic oil country) own people.
It must be weird for Gulf states — as the US goes from supportive ally to feckless fumbling loser state in a few months. Watch Netanyahu batting Kushner around. All these players hold veto powers over USA fantasies (now only existing for domestic PR propaganda anyway). Will Gulf investors ask for their Kushner (alleged) graft money back? At least one crypto grafter has done so toward his Trump family-linked “investments.”
Where is a non-extraditing jurisdiction the Trumps can abscond to now?
I’m sure that the Orangutan will sic Hagseth to cancel the bonds held by those recalcitrant GCC.
Nobody will ask them. You think a rattlesnake asks a gopher if it would mind sharing its burrow?
The old man’s recent rhetoric is almost medically concerning.
Recent? Almost? Have you been under a rock since January last year and just stuck your head out?
“Illegal Orders”
25 Year ‘War Of Terror’ – For ‘Greater Israel’ Land Grab.!
(‘Finishing Off – Iran’) Gen W. Clark 2001
US Troops Told ‘Iran’ War Is ‘Armageddon’ – Return of Jesus.!
Post-Apocalyptic Event.! (Samson Option).!
If we have been at war with Iran for “47 years” what set of Pentagon geniuses built a whole critical offensive/defensive system that was lightly defended and bottled up behind Hormuz?
The lack of wisdom is apparent to all in the region.
Paper tiger.
Wealthy elements within the US control the oil produced by those 5 countries. We allow the ruling classes there to share in the profits. Those bases are there to protect “American interests”: oil profits. They let the local Arab populations that there are severe consequences for any attempt to change the status quo. That’s why we’ve been at war with the Iranians for 47 years: they rose up and kicked our shareholders (and wealthy Brits) out. We want back that which rightfully belongs to US oil barons.
If we have been at war with Iran for 47 years, how is Oliver North not in prison for providing arms to our enemy?
GAO’s 2025 assessment found that DOD’s major acquisition programs were taking nearly 12 years just to provide an initial capability while GAO’s 2026 assessment says the average has now exceeded 12 years.
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107569
Everything Trump does weakens the United States. If he had a functioning human brain I’d posit he’s following orders.
Netanyahu & Putin pull Trump’s strings like a marionette.
If Russia had any influence over Trump, why is the US still providing arms, intelligence and targeting to the regime in Kiev?
Kim Jong Un wants into that club.
As in the Get Smart TV spy comedy, I might imagine those orders are from KAOS, the evil rival Cold War spy agency. Except I think Trump’s “orders” come from the more generic chaos. They come from mental illness compounding in the USA psyche, and politically manifested as Trump. It is a hairball of poor quality action movie scripts, snarling aging male macho ego rants, and various other sordid ingredients. It might resemble the death instinct posited by Freud.
“Trump started this war,”
I thought it was Israel that started this war and that the USA had to jump in and bomb Iran because if the USA didn’t jump in the Iranians would bomb the USA.
Starting in January, the US conducted the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the Iraq invasion in 2003. The shooting war didn’t start till the end of February. Kelly Conway once described Trump as being like a couch that bears the impression of the last person who sat on it. Trump is easily manipulated if you know what buttons to push. Besides Bibi, Graham and other senate war mongers pushed his buttons (as they have so often.) His cabinet and advisors, both ignorant and afraid to voice dissenting opinions told him Iran was going to be a push over and Trump, lacking any sort of cognitive ability, thought it was a swell idea and would make him look like a tough guy to his dictator friends (one of his buttons.) So, no, Israel didn’t start the war and then the US “jumped in”. Israel and Bibi certainly had a hand in convincing Trump to do it but they weren’t the only ones.
Maybe someone told him if he saves Israel god will forgive him for his pedo ways.