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What if Trump Just Walked Away From Iran?
Iran will become “the toll collector at the gulf” if Trump preemptively walks away from the conflict in Iran, Suzanne Maloney, the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, argues on “The Ezra Klein Show.”
What would it mean for Trump to simply say: We’re done. We have declared victory. We have hit the military targets we want hit. We have set their programs back. We’ve obliterated them, as he said last time. And if somebody else wants to open the strait, good on them. What would happen then? I think the likely outcome of a United States withdrawal from this conflict would be that, first of all, the Israelis would probably continue to try to strike Iran, and so the conflict itself would not be over. The Iranians would essentially assume the role of toll collector at the gulf, and they would use this opportunity to really rebuild their own finances and to exert more power over their partners and allies. I think it would have a very destructive impact on the global economy over time, because we would still see a continued constraint in terms of traffic. And so, again, that’s going to fall on our own doorstep very quickly. We’re not insulated from these dynamics around the world. And we would probably wind up with very different relationships with countries that have been very important to our security in the region as well as around the world, whether that’s our NATO allies or countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that have been really important, and important, frankly, to the president in terms of his own monetization of his role. They have in many cases invested in the president’s family. And I can’t imagine they’re going to be very happy holding the bag for this crisis.
What if Trump Just Walked Away From Iran?What if Trump Just Walked Away From Iran?
Iran will become “the toll collector at the gulf” if Trump preemptively walks away from the conflict in Iran, Suzanne Maloney, the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, argues on “The Ezra Klein Show.”
By ‘The Ezra Klein Show’
April 3, 2026
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