Three weeks after the outbreak of war against Iran, Donald Trump finds himself isolated and overwhelmed. Whilst Israel and the United States believed they could deal a fatal blow to the mullahs’ regime within a matter of days, the regime continues to bomb indiscriminately, is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, and is threatening to destroy the entire Middle Eastern oil industry.

Calling on NATO for help, Donald Trump was rebuffed. Following Spain’s lead, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the EU have refused to participate in a war they did not choose, preserving their resources for the Ukrainian front. Furious, Donald Trump is simultaneously facing defections within his own administration: the head of counter-terrorism, Joe Kent, has resigned, criticising an illegitimate war, and a US intelligence report, published on Wednesday 18 March, invalidates Trump and Netanyahu’s narrative on the Iranian nuclear threat. The ground is shifting beneath the White House, which must now find a way out of this war.