Did the Wall Street Journal just prevent a war?

Zero-hour was approaching. A joint US-Israeli attack on the mullahs’ mountain fastness at Fordow seemed imminent. The B-52s were on the tarmac, the USS Nimitz had taken to sea, Ambassador Mike Huckabee was reaching for the smelling salts. 

And then? A last-minute pause. “I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” said the President. Delays like these have now become a standard part of Trump’s box of tricks. If a drama – like the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs of earlier this year – can be kept going for a little longer, then all the more time to extract further concessions from the opposing party. As negotiating tactics go there are certainly worse ones.

But was there another reason? The President’s motives are far less obscure than is generally allowed. Trump hates feeling led and nurses a number of understandable grudges over how he’s been treated these past 10 years. Just when war with Iran seemed a virtual certainty, the Wall Street Journal – an old MAGA heel – appeared to reopen one of these old wounds. In a characteristically Polonian leading article, the Journal seemed to rub its victory in. It implied that the decision to come to Israel’s aid, rather than being a weighty one that in many ways went against Trump’s instincts, was instead simply the solemn duty of any American President:

“If the U.S. won’t help one of its strongest and most loyal allies finish the job of eliminating Iran’s nuclear threat in uncontested air space, the message to China will be that there is no chance the U.S. will defend Taiwan. Everyone will see it—from the Kremlin’s commissars to the Communist bosses in Beidaihe.”

So far, so Journal. But the President soon demurred. “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”, he posted on Truth Social. The delay to the bombing action was announced 10 hours later.

Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson have spoken of the President being enthralled to the Murdoch press over Iran. But Trump has a long memory, not least of Murdoch throwing him to the wolves on election night 2020. This preemptive victory lap by the Journal, Murdoch’s most illustrious piece of real estate, may yet have reminded him that his press empire has never truly been his friend. 

Grudges, miscommunications, misunderstandings. Diplomacy has often turned on these things. A single ill-advised telegram is thought to have caused a war between two great powers in 1871. Is it such a stretch to say that a single article may have just prevented one?