In recent days, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has multiplied false claims about sometimes very simple issues, such as the location of the vice president, J. D. Vance. These are liberties with the handling of the truth that Donald Trump usually takes, but they have a special scope in the context of the war in the Middle East and the talks with Iran.

First modification: 04/21/2026 - 20:58 Last modification: 04/21/2026 - 21:27

Errors and contradictions galore. US President Donald Trump has not stopped spouting falsehoods in recent days about the situation in the Middle East and the course of direct negotiations with Iran, which are supposed to resume on Wednesday, April 22.

J. D. Vance has experienced it himself on several occasions. The vice president was already on his way to Pakistan to meet with the Iranian delegation there on Monday, April 20, according to Donald Trump's claims that same morning. Barely an hour later, the vice president's car, with J. D. Vance inside, arrived at the White House.

Where's J.D. Vance?

However, the previous day, the American president had told the continuous news channel 'MS Now' that J. D. Vance would not travel to Islamabad for security reasons. Shortly later, that same day, two American officials had argued the opposite on the same channel.

In the end, everything indicates that it was Donald Trump who was wrong. The vice president will effectively lead the team of negotiators in charge of finding a way out of the war in the Middle East with Iran, according to White House officials cited by the 'Washington Post'.

But it remains to be seen whether the negotiations will take place. Once again, Trump's mood seems very changeable. At the end of last week, the American president seemed very optimistic, assuring on his social network, Truth, that "the negotiations were going to be quick because an agreement had already been reached on most of the points."

On Saturday, the president was already a little less optimistic, urging Iran to accept "the proposed fair and reasonable agreement as soon as possible, otherwise the United States would destroy all of Iran's bridges and power plants. No more Mr. Friendly!"

On Sunday, the optimistic Donald Trump returned, stating on 'Fox News' that an agreement would be signed "on Sunday night." But it wasn't that fast.

A new turn of events was reported on Monday: as of now, Donald Trump is no longer in any rush for an agreement to be signed, the 'Wall Street Journal' reported.

Is it difficult to find your way? It is also for the Iranians. "The American president made seven statements in one hour. They were all false," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian Parliament and Tehran's chief negotiator in the framework of the talks with the United States, stressed on Saturday in X.

Read alsoThe White House confirms that Vance has not yet left for Pakistan, amid uncertainty about talks with Iran

More and more falsehoods?

Ghalibaf did not detail what those seven lies were. But only last Thursday and Friday, Donald Trump successively stated that Tehran had agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz "forever", stop supporting pro-Iranian armed movements in the Middle East and hand over its reserves of enriched uranium to the Americans.

Iran was quick to remember that enriched uranium was "sacred." In addition, the Tehran regime stressed on Saturday that the Strait of Hormuz remained closed to all ships that had not received the green light to pass through it.

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"It's crazy to think today that you're going to believe the Ayatollah more than the President of the United States," said the famous television host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, a fierce detractor of Donald Trump.

He is not the only one who highlights the number of contradictions and falsehoods uttered in such a short time by the tenant of the White House. "There has been an increase in the number of erroneous comments from the president over the past week," says CNN. "Trump increasingly contradicts himself," adds the 'Washington Post'.

Is Donald Trump more "wrong" than ever? Not necessarily, but "since the stakes are higher than usual, observers expect the American president to take the issue more seriously and therefore pay more attention to everything he may say," says René Lindstaedt, a specialist in American politics at the University of Birmingham.

"In fact, it's the same dynamic since 2017, when Donald Trump's exaggerations about the crowd at his inauguration gave rise to this idea of ​​'alternative reality,'" confirms Scott Lucas, a specialist in international politics and American diplomacy at University College Dublin.

Read alsoCrossed signals and military tensions: the Iran-US dialogues falter as the truce runs out

Faced with Trump's slips, Iran presents itself as a serious negotiator

According to Scott Lucas, however, there is an important difference in Donald Trump's usual routine of questionable statements: "This time it is not like with American domestic politics, people are interested in the facts and their reality."

The president's mistake about the presence or not of J. D. Vance in Pakistan can hardly go unnoticed or be hidden by pro-Trump media like 'Fox News', "because everyone is closely watching what is happening and each statement has immediate and concrete consequences," says Andrew Gawthorpe, a specialist in American foreign policy at Leiden University.

The negotiations in Pakistan will be taken more or less seriously depending on the presence or not of J. D. Vance, 'CNN' emphasizes.

So why insist on saying one thing and then the opposite? It is difficult to know what is going through Donald Trump's head and it is possible that the president thinks that "this unpredictability gives him an advantage in negotiations with Iran," estimates René Lindstaedt.

This is the famous "madman" strategy, so appreciated by former US president Richard Nixon, who used it in the 1970s to make his adversaries believe that he was capable of anything as long as they negotiated on his terms.

But experts interviewed by France 24 believe that Donald Trump's rantings probably have a simpler explanation. The war in the Middle East is not going as planned, and the priority for Donald Trump "is to be able to boast of success in one way or another before the cameras," says Jack Clayton, a specialist in American foreign policy and associate professor at the University of Cambridge.

It is also a sign of "Donald Trump's frustration with a situation that is out of his control," says Andrew Gawthorpe. There's nothing like inventing your own reality to keep it under control.

"The US Administration was wrong to think that it could quickly subdue Iran and now finds itself in a situation, with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, from which Washington does not know how to get out. That is why Donald Trump says everything and the opposite, because in the end there is no good option for him," says Scott Lucas.

Above all, why not insist on being wrong or lying? "These errors and lies have no consequences for him at the moment. It is not as if the Republicans reproached him," says René Lindstaedt. Politically, these freedoms with the truth are less serious for him than allowing the impression to establish that the United States is getting bogged down in one of those endless wars that Donald Trump denounced throughout his campaign.

However, this escalation of inaccuracies and errors has real consequences on the conflict. First, it allows Iran to present itself as the serious negotiator. Tehran "can tell the international community that the Americans cannot be counted on, that they are not telling the truth. It is an advantage for them," says Scott Lucas.

This unpredictability "makes it incredibly difficult for American negotiators to set clear objectives," notes Jack Clayton. In fact, it is difficult to develop a strategy if, overnight, Donald Trump can make a 180-degree turn.

Read alsoEveryone is looking at Hormuz: what does a prolonged reopening of the strait depend on after Iran's announcement?

This article was adapted from its original French version.

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