Trump the unreliable narrator fails to force reality to match his story on Iran

<p>A cycle of threat, detente and deadlock repeats itself wearisomely as the president’s war in Iran drags on</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2026/jun/10/graham-platner-maine-democrats-senate-primary-donald-trump-us-politics-latest-news-updates">US politics live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>As the story of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-israel-war-on-iran">US-Iran war</a> is written direct to social media, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump</a> may be the genre’s premier unreliable narrator.</p><p>Since the war began, Trump has again and again threatened <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran">Iran</a> with fearsome consequences if Tehran doesn’t come to the table and sign a peace deal that the US president said was imminent weeks ago. And he has also repeatedly claimed that an Iran deal is “close” – without any result. (A <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/09/politics/times-trump-iran-deal-close">CNN tally</a> put the number of times he’s claimed it at 38.)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/10/trump-iran-war-analysis">Continue reading...</a>