Image: watson/getty/keystone
analysis
No deal with Iran, Viktor Orban loses, row with the Pope – and trouble with Melania.
April 13, 2026, 3:06 p.mApril 13, 2026, 3:19 p.m
JD Vance traveled to Budapest in the last few days to help Viktor Orban win the election. Then it went to Islamabad to negotiate a deal with the Iranians. He failed miserably both times, and the fact that he now has the worst poll numbers ever for a US vice president doesn’t really make things any better.
However, things are even worse for his boss. The US President has had a truly catastrophic weekend. But first things first.
Iran
Trump believes he is the best negotiator of all time, but that belief may make you happy, but it is of little or no use in political practice. So far, the US President has not managed to conclude a deal with Tehran. There is reasonable hope for further discussions. In order to make Iran compliant, the US President has resorted to a surprising measure. For his part, he wants to close the Strait of Hormuz and ensure that the weakened enemy will give in.
No success across the board: JD Vance.Image: keystone
With this measure, Trump is not only taking a major military risk. He is also betting that the financial markets and the Americans are more resilient than the Iranians. The president is playing high stakes: inflation in the USA has already climbed to 3.3 percent. The price of oil is well above $100 per barrel again, and nervousness is increasing on the financial markets.
Trump appears to have lost his desire for further military action. The economic risk, however, remains. Even the president has now realized that the critical price of gasoline will remain at lofty heights for a longer period of time. It probably won’t go down until November, he told Fox News. This is likely to further deteriorate the already very poor election prospects for the Republicans. Not to mention the danger of a global recession or even depression, which more and more economists are warning about.
Anyway, the campaign against Iran is increasingly becoming a foreign policy disaster of the first order. In an editorial comment, the New York Times gives four reasons why it is so devastating for the USA:
- By threatening to close the strait, Iran has a weapon more effective than a nuclear bomb. “Iran currently has leverage that it could only have dreamed of six weeks ago,” said the Times.
- Even the most powerful army in the world is vulnerable. “The world could see that a country that spends a hundred times less on its military than the United States can survive in a conflict against them,” the Times continued.
- Trump loses the US allies. These are the biggest costs of this war, according to the third point of the “Times”.
- After all, the US has lost its moral authority with Trump’s statement about destroying an entire civilization and the stupid war cries of his Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, the Times ultimately states.
Predicting the outcome of a war is a delicate matter. However, the “Economist” ventures an interim assessment, and it is unmistakable: the magazine describes Trump as the “biggest loser of this war”.
Hungary
Economically, Hungary is a dwarf for the USA, but politically it is a giant. Not only MAGA supporters made a pilgrimage to Budapest, but also the assembled right-wing populists from around the world. They believed that Viktor Orban had succeeded in creating an authoritarian state that would be protected against all attacks from leftists and liberals for a long time.
Destroyingly defeated: Viktor Orban.Image: keystone
Hungary became the blueprint for all would-be dictators in the world, including Donald J. Trump. Orban’s crushing election defeat is therefore also a heavy blow for the US President, as it makes it clear that even a hard-core dictator cannot stand against a united Democratic front.
For Trump, Orban’s defeat is a political version of the time-honored admonition memento mori. For Hungarians and all democrats around the world, however, it is a long-awaited ray of hope in an increasingly bleak world. Or as a Hungarian woman puts it: “I feel like I did in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell.”
The Pope
In contrast to his predecessor, Leo XIV was previously seen as a pope who stayed out of political quarrels. The war against Iran shattered this prejudice; Leo XIV chose clear words against the US President and his Defense Minister. “Every disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today rain bombs on people,” said the Pope.
Has Trump taken to prayer: Pope Leo XIV.Image: keystone
The US President reacted immediately, and as usual, in the most primitive possible denominator. On his Truth Social platform, he posted that the Pope was “weak on crime and terrible on foreign policy.” The fact that he is offending around 1.4 billion Catholics seems to leave Trump unmoved. Yes, he even went so far as to claim that he had helped Leo XIV to his office. “Without the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” said Trump.
He finally filled the barrel with an AI-generated meme that showed him in a pose reminiscent of Jesus.
Melania
The only noticeable success that the Iran War has delivered for Trump so far is – or was – the fact that the Epstein Files disappeared from the headlines for a few weeks. The First Lady, of all people, has now ensured that the pedophile sexual criminal and his connection to the presidential couple are on everyone’s lips again.
Enigmatic: Melania Trump.Image: keystone
For rationally incomprehensible reasons, Melania Trump held a press conference in which she stated that she was not an Epstein victim and that she only knew the monster briefly. At the same time, she called on Congress to summon his victims and expose his accomplices.
Since then, not only the whole of Washington, but also the whole of America has been puzzling over which devil rode the First Lady. Does she want to harm her husband, whom she supposedly detests deeply? Or does she want to forestall a catastrophic revelation? Conspiracy theories are springing up like mushrooms after a warm rain, and Trump will have to explain once again why he is mentioned more in the Epstein Files than God in the Bible.