‘Clown crew’: Iran speaker mocks Trump’s top officials, tells them to ‘pull rabbit out of their hat’
WASHINGTON, DC: As the war between the US and Iran drags on and Trump finally confessed that there are no peace talks taking place between the two parties as a 60-day plan to achieve a permanent ceasefire ended, a Tehran official is now taking on Trump’s team.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said there were “no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled” with Iran, while also saying the Strait of Hormuz was open and operating and that mines had been removed or detonated.
Iran spokesperson calls Trump team a ‘clown crew’
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Tuesday, August 17, bashed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as being “way out of their league” in trying to bring Tehran to the table for peace negotiations.
“Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement,” Ghalibaf wrote in a post to the social platform X.
Americans think squeezing Iran harder will win concessions that were never part of the agreement.
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) August 18, 2026
Bessent and Hegseth are way out of their league. Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made.
“Bessent and Hegseth are way out of their league. Stop waiting for the clown crew to pull a rabbit out of their hat and clean up the mess you made,” he added.
US efforts to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the negotiating table have so far failed to make much progress.
Trump said Tuesday that no talks are currently underway with Iran, as the war enters its sixth month with no clear end in sight.
Hegseth, Bessent rarely talked about Iran war
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has rarely spoken about the state of the US war against Iran publicly as of late, though on Monday he defended the Trump administration’s military actions while speaking at the Iowa State Fair.
At an event honors military service members, veterans and their families, Hegseth relayed the long-repeated line from President Trump that the war was necessary to keep Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“There is a cost of doing very difficult things, to going out and defending your country and ensuring radical Islamist crazies don’t get a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said. “I’m not willing to look my kids in the eye and say, ‘We had a chance to do something about it, but we didn’t.”
Bessent, meanwhile, last week hinted the US would apply sanctions on Iran that have “never been seen.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday, August 17, shared an image on Truth Social, portraying the Strait of Hormuz as US territory.
