“We’re in no rush. But we’ll get it and when we get it, we will destroy it.”

That was Donald Trump during a press conference on June 16 at Évian-les-Bains, France.

He noted there need be no hurry to get the nuclear material he was referring to because there are satellites with “very powerful cameras” keeping watch on the Iranian nuclear sites — which, of course, he noted are all under rubble. Should the Iranians make a move, then additional action will be taken.

But in the meantime, “when all is calm,” he said, the nuclear material will be taken.

(How? Well, that’s not clear.)

Think about this for a moment.

Trump is absolutely lackadaisical about the nuclear material, yet from the start throughout most of the war he kept making it sound like the Iranians were hell-bent on producing a bomb that was going to be lobbed to a location near you.

There he was, essentially saying like an adolescent, “whenever.”

During his June 17 press conference, he said, “If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two to four weeks.” He also noted several times that if the Iranians don’t do what he wants them to do, behave the way he thinks he should, the bombing will resume, he’ll bomb them.

Still, if he’d continued the bombing “you would never have the Hormuz Strait open. You would never have success; your market would have, instead of going up at levels that nobody’s ever seen before, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before.”

Success, apparently, is having the Strait of Hormuz open, something that was never closed until Trump started the war. Now he is positioning that as some sort of wonderful success.

He broke it. He claims to have fixed it. And that’s something special?

As for the market, consider this: On March 2, the first Monday after Operation Epic Fury began, the S&P 500 was at 6,881. It began a decline to March 28, when it reached 6,343. It didn’t get back to 6,881 until April 13.

In other words, somebodies have lost money in the market for roughly a month and a half. Yet those losses are never mentioned.

Yes, on June 17 the S&P 500 closed at 7,420, but where would it have been had there not been this pointless war? Isn’t in conceivable that it could be much higher?

Trump boasts about oil prices going down. But why did they go up?

Because of a war whose mission now seems to be the stuff of a shrug.

Consider this from the memorandum of understanding:

“8. The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.”

Reaffirms? The “re” indicates that this is confirming again something that has already been said. So in other words, Iran already said it. What did Trump accomplish?

Less than nothing.

And as 8 leads to 9:

“9. Pending the final deal, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran agree to maintain the status quo. The Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program, and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region.”

“Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program”?

It doesn’t take an expert in Latin to know that “status quo” means it is going to be what it was.

So what was accomplished?

How many kids didn’t get a prom dress because of the prices driven up by the war — driven up on top of the tariff price increases?

How many parents had to cut back on that high school graduation gift because of the inflated price of gas, gas needed simply to get to work?

“We’re in no rush”?

What has he accomplished, not only for what seems to matter to him first and foremost, his reputation, but for the American people?

Clearly, he thought that Iran would be like Venezuela. The US would sweep in, take care of business, and declare victory. Trump would be triumphant, doing something none of those previous weak, stupid presidents could accomplish.

Instead, he did nothing but strengthen the Iranian hand, which raises the obvious question: Are you better off today than you were February 27, 2026?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large forThe Hustings.