IN the end, cool heads prevailed.
But make no mistake, this was as perilous as it gets — and it went right to the wire.
The bellicose rhetoric was unlike anything we’ve ever heard from a sitting US President.
Twelve hours before his deadline expired, Donald Trump’s 85-word Truth Social post put the world on notice.
It was predictably unpredictable for a Commander-in-Chief who few, if any, can read.
Most anticipated an “off-ramp” of some sort that would help him save face and avoid making good on his promise.
DONALD PUMP
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But the post, unpleasant and uncompromising, was clear: “A whole civilisation will die tonight.”
No one was expecting it — least of all those who ridicule him with the “TACO” moniker — Trump Always Chickens Out.
Here we were then, on the very edge of the abyss, staring down and wondering what the hell was going to happen next.
Neither side was willing to back down and then, after frantic rounds of diplomacy, it finally came.
A ceasefire which had seemed so unlikely in the hours leading up to it.
Had Iran called Trump’s bluff?
Was this another example of TACO?
As with anything to do with Trump, it’s hard to say.
The ceasefire is fragile — but it’s better than an escalation which would have inched the Middle East closer to oblivion.