Trump sought to break Iran's regime. He settled for reopening Hormuz. [View all]

President Donald Trump declared an end to his campaign against Iran’s leaders with an exhortation on Sunday: “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

With the Iranian regime still in place, he was celebrating a resumption of the way the world was on Feb. 27, the day before the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

A return to a version of the status quo was a far cry from the original aims of a war effort that kicked off with a vow to come to the aid of the Iranian protesters who had taken to their nation’s streets to denounce their regime. Once strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in the opening hours of the war, Trump told Iranians that the moment to seize back their nation had come.

An uprising never happened. In the nearly four months since, Iranian leaders demonstrated an ability to withstand withering attacks from the most powerful military in history, shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cripple global energy markets, and drive such a deep wedge between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. leader spent part of his 80th birthday Sunday cursing out his Israeli counterpart to journalists.

https://wapo.st/43zPxSk