-Analysis-
ROME — In 1979, the historic land of Persia, teetering between modernization and authoritarianism, fell into the hands of a man who promised light and delivered darkness. Ruhollah Khomeini — the Iranian ayatollah exiled to the quaint town of Neauphle-le-Château, west of Paris — appeared to the world as a disarmed mystic, quoting the Koran and preaching justice.
But behind the turban, he was hiding poison. Within months, he wiped out centuries of political culture, dismantled the monarchy, disbanded the army, and founded a totalitarian theocracy.
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In 2025, the world witnessed another turning point: Donald Trump returned to the White House. Along with him came crude language, incendiary tweets, and contradictory statements.
And yet, within this apparent chaos, there was a method: Trump lies, but he lies strategically. He confuses, destabilizes, disorients: not out of ignorance, but with calculation. No, despite surface appearances, the “Trump Method” is not improvisation. It is a deliberate strategy of deception. It is the power of lies used not to reassure, but to intimidate.
And in a paradox almost Kafkaesque, this method may prove effective precisely where Western diplomacy has failed for so long: in confronting the Islamic regime of Iran.
Beyond rhetoric
Trump ordered targeted bombings last month of Iranian nuclear infrastructure. The strikes were in response to a cyberattack attributed to the Revolutionary Guard, and they coincided with a twelve-day lightning war launched by Israel against the Tehran regime. There was no formal declaration: only action. And yet, just 24 hours earlier, the American president had spoken of negotiations being “close.”
The question is uncomfortable but necessary: if Khomeini used lies to establish tyranny, are Trump’s lies the missing ingredient to help bring it down?
This is not mere rhetorical play. It is a tragic reversal of history. Khomeini promised: “Freedom, independence, Islamic Republic!” Trump says: “We’re not seeking regime change.”
Yet while one built a theocratic dictatorship, the other may be trying to dismantle it with controlled disorder. The Iranian people have endured 40 years of repression, reformist illusions, and broken compromises. They are immune to empty promises. But perhaps now, a more ruthless lie — the West pretending détente while preparing a siege, could work. Not because it is morally right, but because it could break the balance.
Khomeini in Tehran in 1978 — Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Tactical psychology
Trump lies, yes. But he does so as a strategist. In 2018, he offered unconditional talks, then imposed the harshest sanctions ever a week later. In 2019, he threatened to annihilate Iran, then sent conciliatory messages to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. When a drone was shot down, he ordered a strike, then called it off ten minutes before it launched. This isn’t schizophrenia. It’s a tactical psychological pressure.
Trump does not hide. He is brutal, direct, often vulgar. But he does not pretend to be something he is not.
In the 1970s, Khomeini’s lies were sweet: “The clergy will not govern,” “I will return to Qom,” “Iran will be modern and free.” Poetic promises that masked a total power grab. Even the constitutional article on Velayat-e Faqih, granting clerical supremacy, was inserted post hoc, without true popular consent.
Trump, by contrast, does not hide. He is brutal, direct, often vulgar. But he does not pretend to be something he is not. And that brutality, in a disillusioned world, may prove more effective than hypocritical sweetness.
Truth is a luxury
This is not a celebration of Trump. Nor a justification of lying. But in geopolitics, truth is a rare luxury. And history teaches us that, at times, deception can be used against those who have built entire systems on deception.
Reagan once called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” He never attacked it militarily, but wore it down with rhetoric, strategic isolation and well-timed bluffs. Perhaps Trump is attempting something similar with Iran: not total war, but asymmetric erosion, economic, psychological, and media-driven.
Two lies. Two possible futures. Iran was seduced and betrayed by a cleric who preached love and brought death. Today, it might be destabilized by a leader who preaches war and, perhaps, opens the way to systemic collapse.
Khomeini destroyed it with a smile. Trump could do it by shouting.
But what matters more than the tone is the goal. In a world run on power, lying has always existed. But there’s a difference between those who lie to dominate… and those who lie to destroy domination. If truth has failed, then perhaps, just this time, we must trust the liar.