Former Trump pal Geraldo Rivera told the CNN Newsnight crew that Iran called President Donald Trump’s bluff because they “figured out” the whole Trump Always Chickens Out “thing.”

The Iran war has been characterized by conflicting messages from the beginning, a trend that has escalated since Trump announced a permanent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, which lasted a matter of hours.

Most recently, Trump said Tuesday morning that he didn’t want to extend the ceasefire, then hours later extended the ceasefire when Iran did not respond to a set of U.S. proposals.

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip hosted a panel that included Ashley Allison, Jason Rantz, Justin Pearson, Lauren Wright, and Rivera.

The anchor opened the show with a recap of the developments and asked Geraldo what he made of them:

ABBY PHILLIP: All of this happened as a second round of peace talks with Iran was expected to get underway with Vice President JD Vance set to travel to Pakistan. But we are learning that as Air Force One idled on the tarmac ahead of Vance’s scheduled departure, Iran essentially ghosted the United States, telling — his officials told CNN that the White House had sent an initial list of broad deal points that it wanted Iran to agree to before negotiations, but they never received a response. And that then raised questions about whether much of anything could be achieved in person.

The big question now is, where does this conflict go from here, and what comes next for the all-important Strait of Hormuz?

And this new reporting from CNN, Geraldo, that Iran basically did not answer them at all, and the explanation could be that they are fractured, as President Trump said. But the fact that the threat of a resumption of hostilities wasn’t enough for them to scurry something together, what does that tell you about how much leverage the United States has by continuing to use force as a threat here?

GERALDO RIVERA: Well, that’s a great question. I think they called his bluff. I think that the Iranians figured out that the whole TACO thing, the whole Trump always chickens out. You know, they estimated that his bluster, at first it shocked them and frightened them, and then the more they, I guess, became familiar with his M.O., the more they saw that he was all talk.

And that I think the other big point is Trump wildly underestimated the Iranians’ capacity to suffer. I really think that he thought that by bombing and causing widespread devastation and all the rest of it, that he could leverage them into a negotiation. Instead, he watched them martyr themselves and strengthen their hand.

Yes, I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors in Iran, by any means, but I suspect that Trump probably does, and the Israelis probably do, and they’ve come to the conclusion, and that’s why they pulled off yesterday, come to the conclusion that it was disastrous to continue.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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