‘Trump realises America is up shit creek in Iran, and he wants out’

What’s the story?

Farewell Project Freedom, it was short but sweet and it didn't really do much at all.

Trump has paused his grand plan for the US military to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz just 24 hours after it was announced.

He has said Project Freedom (actually just a briefly re-named International Maritime Freedom Construct, which was introduced in 2019 by a coalition of countries, led by the US) will be paused because of the "great progress" being made in securing peace with Iran.

But Iran's state-run media has described the move as "America's defeat", and said that in doing so, Trump has used his "last card".

“America hasn’t changed the regime. It hasn’t got the nuclear material and, no, it hasn’t stopped Iran's missile program,” says Jon Sopel about Trump's war in Iran, which he began in association with Israel on 28 February 2026.

“But apart from that, it's all gone really well.”

How Trump embarrassed Marco Rubio en route to embarrassing himself

Trump announced the end of Project Freedom on social media (of course), just moments after Marco Rubio, standing in for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, told journalists that America was now absolutely focused on it.

He said it was to ensure the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, a problem which America created with its invasion.

Rubio also claimed the high price of oil in America was due to “global events” – but didn’t elaborate on what those events were, or who might have been responsible for them.

"No, it's your policies that have directly led to that," says Jon.

"There's a straight line that leads from the price of gas to what you'd started over 60 days ago in Iran."

WTF is going on?

The News Agents say there are two possible options in this strange situation.

One is that Trump halted Project Freedom because of reports of Iran and America being close to agreeing on a one-page document to address a lasting peace. The other is more complicated, and more likely.

"The other explanation is that Donald Trump sets up Project Freedom, and says that there is this 'red, white and blue dome' now over the Strait of Hormuz and ships can pass freely," says Jon.

"But within hours of him announcing that, a French container ship gets hit, crew members get injured, and oops, it looks like that dome is not quite as fire proof as Donald Trump asserted it was."

Trump's secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, was telling journalists about this so-called dome just 24 hours before it was shut down.

Rather than face being humiliated by Iran, Jon suggests Trump may be just pretending the peace talks are in fact going well, and crossing his fingers that things turn out as he hopes.

Why now?

There is also the fact that if the conflict had continued over 60 days, Trump would have had to go to Congress for permission to continue his war – and he has clearly decided that is not worth the hassle.

That 60 day limit has now passed – and Trump has argued that other presidents have not adhered to this law in the past.

"This is all happening now at the 60-day deadline, because on Friday, Trump would have had to send a letter to Congress asking for approval to go on with this," says Emily Maitlis.

"Rather than wait for that to be turned down he probably thinks it's easier just to put it to an end."

But if it's this obvious to The News Agents, and probably many people all over the world, is it obvious to America?

"I really struggle to work out how much the US administration is telling themselves this story," Emily adds.

"And how many realise that they are up the old shit creek, the Hormuz Creek."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.