{"id":5181,"date":"2026-08-22T12:05:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5181"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:05:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:05:57","slug":"the-ghost-of-1980-and-the-curse-that-could-crush-trumps-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5181","title":{"rendered":"The ghost of 1980 and the ‘curse’ that could crush Trump\u2019s presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Trump is blustering hard at the economic damage he\u2019s got in store for Iran. But Iran\u2019s most devastating president-killer is locked and loaded on Trump. And it rarely misses its mark, according to the Guardian.<\/p>\n

Read more Reporter flags bruising, swelling, and secrecy surrounding Trump\u2019s fitness<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMonths before Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, eight US servicemen died in a botched high-risk rescue mission that failed to secure the freedom of dozens of US hostages seized in Tehran,\u201d reports Guardian writer Robert Tait. \u201cAs he addressed students and academics, keen for reflections on his single-term presidency, one of the students asked Carter: what do you most regret?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot sending more helicopters for the hostage rescue,\u201d Carter immediately replied, according to Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, who hosted the event. \u201cIt was very much on his mind,\u201d said Sabato.<\/p>\n

If Trump is thinking anything at all as he dances and blusters his way through November midterm rallies and run-offs, he\u2019s probably got Iran on his mind \u2014 and what it did to Carter.<\/p>\n

Trump remains embroiled in his self-made Iranian quagmire as he flounders toward the midterms and the likely prospect of losing one or both chambers of Congress to Democrats. Polls suggest voters are looking to retaliate against Trump\u2019s beholden Republican Party for letting Trump pull the nation into war and subsequent high inflation and gas prices.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s efforts to finish the war he started along with Israel, have hit rocks after a ceasefire agreement signed in June collapsed \u2013 leaving Iran in control of the strategic strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil supplies before Trump\u2019s war closed it, reports Tait. <\/p>\n

Now, said Tait, Trump is deep in Carter vibes as the midterms mangle him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith public support for the war running low, polls show a majority of American voters believe they are worse off since Trump returned to office in January 2025. That indicator alone has echoes of Reagan\u2019s famous question to voters during his 1980 presidential debate with Carter: \u2018Are you better off than you were four years ago?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Desperate Trump dances for love as voter sentiment cools<\/a><\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s troubles have a broader resemblance to Carter\u2019s dilemma, Sabato told the Guardian. Like Carter, who failed to rescue hostages when revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in 1979 and held 52 diplomats and military personnel, Trump\u2019s every option ultimately worsens his predicament.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarter couldn\u2019t change course, and maybe that\u2019s what\u2019s most applicable, because Trump can\u2019t change course either,\u201d said Sabato. \u201cCarter was stuck because, after the failed rescue, the hostages were dispersed throughout Iran and there was no way to recover them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran released the hostages after 444 days in captivity, minutes after Reagan was sworn into office on 20 January 1981, in what is alleged to be an inside deal with the incoming Reagan campaign working to prevent the U.S. hostages from being freed before Election Day. But for Trump there is no shadowy deal between Iranian officials and Republican apparatchiks to pull Americans out of the mess. Trump bungled into this one entirely of his own volition.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s time for \u201cpayback,\u201d reports Tait\u2014Iran style<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are determined to make him pay the consequences of starting this war at the midterm elections,\u201d said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and international relations professor at Johns Hopkins University. \u201cThe whole point Iran is making is that \u2018We\u2019re not going to let him decide the sort of ebb and flow of this war.\u2019 Their position is \u2018We have a vote here, and we\u2019re not just going to make it convenient for him\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In so doing, Iran is adopting the apparently effective tactic of weaponizing U.S. voters against an impotent president. The only difference between Carter and Trump at this point appears to be Trump\u2019s bloviating, blustery fury as he threatens to \u201cbomb the s\u2014\u2014 out of\u201d Oman if it \u201cgets in the way\u201d of efforts to end the conflict.<\/p>\n

But of course, if Trump does turn up the heat with more bombings or even a ground invasion he risks raising more U.S. prices, more US soldiers coming home in boxes and looking even more old and impotent.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Standards have changed\u2019: Hypocrisy of Trump\u2019s Graham cleanup exposed by CNN<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump is blustering hard at the economic damage he\u2019s got in store for Iran. But Iran\u2019s most devastating president-killer is locked and loaded on Trump. And it rarely misses its mark, according to the Guardian.\u201cMonths before Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, eight US …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe ghost of 1980 and the 'curse' that could crush Trump\u2019s presidency - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5181\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The ghost of 1980 and the 'curse' that could crush Trump\u2019s presidency - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trump is blustering hard at the economic damage he\u2019s got in store for Iran. 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