Negotiations Proceeding Nicely
President Trump honors fallen American service members on Memorial Day. Source: The White House.
On Memorial Day, as President Trump laid a wreath at Arlington for the 13 Americans killed in the Iran war, U.S. forces were conducting fresh strikes on Iranian soil. The holiday that asks the nation to reckon with the costs of war arrived this year while that war was still being fought. President Trump paid his respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and honored the 13 service members killed during Operation Epic Fury, stating they died to ensure Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon.” Hours later, the U.S. government was still striking Iranian targets. CENTCOM announced that American forces conducted “self-defense strikes” in Southern Iran, targeting missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to lay mines. These strikes were carried out even as President Trump wrote on social media that negotiations were “proceeding nicely.” The juxtaposition of a solemn remembrance in the morning and the active bombing in the afternoon captures the strange liminal state of the Iran war nearly three months after it began. The U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes on February 28, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader and much of its military leadership in what Trump presented as an operation to prevent Tehran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. By the time a ceasefire took effect on April 8, 13 Americans had been killed and 381 injured. Complications have mounted for negotiators. Iran insists any final deal includes a halt to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israeli and Hezbollah forces continue to exchange fire despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Critics on both sides of the aisle argue the proposed agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz while leaving Iran's nuclear program largely unresolved, which is precisely the outcome President Trump’s war was meant to foreclose. The Memorial Day ceremony made the political stakes of that gap explicit. Trump honored the family of Air Force Captain Ariana Savino, one of the 13 killed, connecting their sacrifice to the broader cause of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran. The president praised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a “tough cookie” who “went through a lot.” Portions of the address were also used to slam the Biden administration. With midterm elections approaching and a permanent deal still unsigned, the ceremony at Arlington served as a reminder that the human costs of Operation Epic Fury remain unresolved, politically and diplomatically. For many, the 13 names Trump invoked represent a moral argument for finishing what the war started; for others, they underscore the urgency of a settlement that actually achieves what those deaths were meant to secure.