Burgers, then war: Trump’s bluffs before Iran strikes

South China Morning Post · Feb 28, 2026 · Collected from RSS

Summary

Full Article

On a visit to Texas on Friday, US President Donald Trump gave a raucous speech on the economy and then stopped off at a fast-food joint.“Hamburgers for everyone!” Trump declared to cheering customers at the Whataburger restaurant in Corpus Christi, before the 47th president left clutching a bag with order No 47.Nine hours later, in the dead of night, Trump announced from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that he had ordered the start of a major attack against Iran.It was the culmination of a series of feints and bluffs in the preceding hours and days as the former reality television star kept the world guessing.The smokescreen even featured daily schedules that appeared to leave time for weekend golf games and announcements of meetings for his senior officials.The USS Spruance, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, fires a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile in support of Operation Epic Fury on Saturday. Photo: US Navy via APPerhaps the weekend at Mar-a-Lago should have been the giveaway.

Share this story

Read Original at South China Morning Post

South China Morning Post12 minutes ago

Indonesia is getting an aircraft carrier. The Philippines isn’t. Does it matter?

The Philippines cannot afford an aircraft carrier, could not sustain one if it had it and, according to most analysts, does not need one. What it needs is messier, cheaper and harder to photograph, they say: a web of missiles, patrol boats, frigates and surveillance assets designed not to project power, but to deny it. Two recent developments have made that choice harder to ignore. Last month, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr openly mused that an aircraft carrier with “accompanying...

South China Morning Post12 minutes ago

How China could narrow a tech hub’s income gap – and avoid Silicon Valley’s fate

Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the third entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. In China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, a sprawling laboratory for Beijing’s “common prosperity” campaign to reduce income inequality, statistics suggest success: between 2021...

South China Morning Post42 minutes ago

Trump was once not keen on regime change in Iran – then he lost patience

With Saturday’s military operation against Iran, US President Donald Trump showed a dramatic evolution in risk tolerance, adjusting in just a matter of months how far he was willing to go in using American military might to confront Tehran’s clerical rule. Guardrails were tossed aside, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered up a battle plan that included targeted strikes on Iran’s leadership, including the 86-year-old Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death...

South China Morning Post42 minutes ago

The high price of Hong Kong’s slow switch to electric buses and taxis

Hong Kong sees itself as a modern, well-governed, global city that moves with the times. On finance, education, legal services and logistics, that self-image holds. But when considering the green transition, particularly transport electrification, the gap between rhetoric and reality is increasingly hard to ignore. Nowhere is this more evident than in electrifying the taxi fleet, where the quarter-century timeline floated bears little resemblance to what is standard practice in neighbouring...

South China Morning Postabout 1 hour ago

Chinese social media bans female Uygur comic over marriage jokes – sparks backlash

A social media ban on a stand-up comic for joking about marriage has triggered an online backlash in China. Authorities said the Weibo account of Uygur stand-up comedian Xiao Pa was suspended as part of a cyberspace clean-up campaign during the Chinese New Year. Xiao Pa, whose real name is Paziliyaer Paerhati, was banned from posting online, a verified Weibo community manager posted on Friday. “Xiao Pa had posted information that stirred up gender conflicts and created anxiety over marriage and...

South China Morning Postabout 1 hour ago

China entrepreneur, abandoned as child, owns fashion brand that generates US$36 million sales

A businesswoman from central China who was raised in a family that prized sons over daughters has built her own e-commerce fashion empire. Huang Xuanni, 44, grew up in a rural family in Binzhou, Hunan province, where she was the overlooked sixth daughter among seven children. Her parents, who lavished attention on their only son, left Huang to eat alone on the doorstep and rarely remembered her name. Mainland reports recount a heartbreaking moment in her childhood when her parents abandoned her...

Burgers, then war: Trump’s bluffs before Iran strikes

Full Article

Related Articles

Indonesia is getting an aircraft carrier. The Philippines isn’t. Does it matter?

How China could narrow a tech hub’s income gap – and avoid Silicon Valley’s fate

Trump was once not keen on regime change in Iran – then he lost patience

The high price of Hong Kong’s slow switch to electric buses and taxis

Chinese social media bans female Uygur comic over marriage jokes – sparks backlash

China entrepreneur, abandoned as child, owns fashion brand that generates US$36 million sales

Burgers, then war: Trump’s bluffs before Iran strikes

Full Article

Related Articles

Indonesia is getting an aircraft carrier. The Philippines isn’t. Does it matter?

How China could narrow a tech hub’s income gap – and avoid Silicon Valley’s fate

Trump was once not keen on regime change in Iran – then he lost patience

The high price of Hong Kong’s slow switch to electric buses and taxis

Chinese social media bans female Uygur comic over marriage jokes – sparks backlash

China entrepreneur, abandoned as child, owns fashion brand that generates US$36 million sales

Related Articles

South China Morning Post12 minutes ago
Indonesia is getting an aircraft carrier. The Philippines isn’t. Does it matter?
The Philippines cannot afford an aircraft carrier, could not sustain one if it had it and, according to most analysts, does not need one. What it needs is messier, cheaper and harder to photograph, they say: a web of missiles, patrol boats, frigates and surveillance assets designed not to project power, but to deny it. Two recent developments have made that choice harder to ignore. Last month, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr openly mused that an aircraft carrier with “accompanying...

South China Morning Post12 minutes ago
How China could narrow a tech hub’s income gap – and avoid Silicon Valley’s fate
Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the third entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. In China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, a sprawling laboratory for Beijing’s “common prosperity” campaign to reduce income inequality, statistics suggest success: between 2021...

South China Morning Post42 minutes ago
Trump was once not keen on regime change in Iran – then he lost patience
With Saturday’s military operation against Iran, US President Donald Trump showed a dramatic evolution in risk tolerance, adjusting in just a matter of months how far he was willing to go in using American military might to confront Tehran’s clerical rule. Guardrails were tossed aside, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered up a battle plan that included targeted strikes on Iran’s leadership, including the 86-year-old Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose death...

South China Morning Post42 minutes ago
The high price of Hong Kong’s slow switch to electric buses and taxis
Hong Kong sees itself as a modern, well-governed, global city that moves with the times. On finance, education, legal services and logistics, that self-image holds. But when considering the green transition, particularly transport electrification, the gap between rhetoric and reality is increasingly hard to ignore. Nowhere is this more evident than in electrifying the taxi fleet, where the quarter-century timeline floated bears little resemblance to what is standard practice in neighbouring...

South China Morning Postabout 1 hour ago
Chinese social media bans female Uygur comic over marriage jokes – sparks backlash
A social media ban on a stand-up comic for joking about marriage has triggered an online backlash in China. Authorities said the Weibo account of Uygur stand-up comedian Xiao Pa was suspended as part of a cyberspace clean-up campaign during the Chinese New Year. Xiao Pa, whose real name is Paziliyaer Paerhati, was banned from posting online, a verified Weibo community manager posted on Friday. “Xiao Pa had posted information that stirred up gender conflicts and created anxiety over marriage and...

South China Morning Postabout 1 hour ago
China entrepreneur, abandoned as child, owns fashion brand that generates US$36 million sales
A businesswoman from central China who was raised in a family that prized sons over daughters has built her own e-commerce fashion empire. Huang Xuanni, 44, grew up in a rural family in Binzhou, Hunan province, where she was the overlooked sixth daughter among seven children. Her parents, who lavished attention on their only son, left Huang to eat alone on the doorstep and rarely remembered her name. Mainland reports recount a heartbreaking moment in her childhood when her parents abandoned her...