The Week: The Pope & the President

• The difference is the pope claims infallibility only rarely.

• President Donald Trump dispatched Vice President JD Vance and Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad for peace talks with the Iranians. An agreement was not reached. But the party with leverage is free to walk away from the negotiating table, and that’s what Trump’s team did. Before the talks collapsed, Trump deployed warships to the Strait of Hormuz for threat-clearing operations while daring the Iranians to break the cease-fire. And when negotiations broke down, the president ordered a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Far from abandoning the war, Trump appealed to one of warfare’s oldest tactics to break Iranian resistance—and Tehran is feeling the squeeze. Absent relief, Iran will have no money to pay its militias and paramilitary forces, and nowhere to store its crude oil and petroleum products. The United States can hold out longer than Iran, but the global economy is feeling the strain as well. The question now looms large: Will America relent before Iran gives in?

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• The difference is the pope claims infallibility only rarely.

• President Donald Trump dispatched Vice President JD Vance and Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad for peace talks with the Iranians. An agreement was not reached. But the party with leverage is free to walk away from the negotiating table, and that’s what Trump’s team did. Before the talks collapsed, Trump deployed warships to the Strait of Hormuz for threat-clearing operations while daring the Iranians to break the cease-fire. And when negotiations broke down, the president ordered a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Far from abandoning the war, Trump appealed to one of warfare’s oldest tactics to break Iranian resistance—and Tehran is feeling the squeeze. Absent relief, Iran will have no money to pay its militias and paramilitary forces, and nowhere to store its crude oil and petroleum products. The United States can hold out longer than Iran, but the global economy is feeling the strain as well. The question now looms large: Will America relent before Iran gives in?