Chris Rawlins

Translator, author, charity trustee, passionate European.

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@RpsAgainstTrump All the empathy of a bucket of cold sick.

[Lord Sugar @Lord_Sugar]

Is there a chance if FIFA watched this they would disqualify Argentina for cheating or have a replay with another referee

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@DrNeilStone No, I absolutely do not! (5 yrs post-diagnosis Parky.)

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

Argentina: such charmers.

[The i Paper @theipaper]

Argentina fans spat and trampled on an English flag in Times Square after World Cup semi-final victory

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@am1874northwich "Ein Reich, ein Volk....."

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@miffythegamer @LBC @IainDale And despite the fact that there is nothing religious about civil partnerships

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

Zahawi, get in the bin!
#bbclaurak

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@RealMGSimpson @Nigel_Farage @reformparty_uk Get in the bin!

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@AlastairMorgan Gross, isn't it?

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

Oh look ! The guy bankrolling Reform and his "Daddy" Farage lost £16 million one night in a poker game in Montenegro

Dear people of Clacton etc - if you really think this lot are the ones fighting for you against "The Establishment", sorry but you're basically an idiot

[Tim Walker @ThatTimWalker]

‘If you vote Binface you’ll save the British taxpayer £350k — the cost of the second by-election if Farage wins this one and and the parliamentary authorities then find corruption — and you can put that on the side of a bus.’

[Lord Ashcroft @LordAshcroft]

So Conservatives Labour Libdems Greens and Restore are not proffering candidates in the Clacton by-election. This leaves the coast clear for Count Binface to go for a win which would be the biggest upset in political elections…

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

When I said the £5 million was for security, I meant it would have been if my security wasn't already being paid for by convicted fraudster George Cottrell. And anyway it's a reward for Brexit and also totally unconditional.

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@JohnRentoul @theipaper 7/10 today

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

Happy heavenly Father's Day, dad. X

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@PolitlcsUK WFA, PIP, Mandy. Need I go on?

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@NoContextBrits Postman's Knock (Brum)

[Chris Rawlins @chrisrawlins1]

@JohnRentoul @theipaper 6/10 today.

[Molly Ploofkins @Mollyploofkins]

Understanding Trump's Surrender to Iran: A Quick Guide

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

It takes a special kind of strategic incompetence to achieve total military dominance and still pathetically lose a war, yet that is exactly what Donald Trump did in Iran.

The US and Israel ruled the skies, hitting almost every target with virtually zero resistance and few aircraft losses.

Even so, the entire operation failed because Trump is a loudmouth fraud who was never actually ready to commit.

Before the war started, I wrote that Iran's best move would be to just to try to somehow survive the first wave, and call Trump's bluff, and that is exactly what they did. They realized early on that Trump's tough-guy routine was entirely hollow.

Airstrikes alone rarely force an aggressive regime to collapse. Trump ignored every historian and military advisor, charging ahead with Israel without a clear objective.

This was not a typical asymmetric victory like Ukraine's resistance against Russia, where the smaller nation wins by inflicting severe costs on the occupier. Iran's military performance was miserable. Their air defenses were a joke, and their retaliatory strikes achieved almost nothing.

They won the war of wits because survival was existential for them, while for Trump, it was a political stunt. They correctly gambled that the US had no stomach for a prolonged ground invasion.

They just had to absorb the hits and choke off global oil supplies in the Strait of Hormuz. Both sides held back some of their biggest moves, since Washington kept ground troops out of the fight and Tehran chose not to make the Houthis completely seal off Bab el Mandeb.

I have absolutely zero sympathy for the horrific Iranian regime. Trump deeply betrayed the people of Iran by waiting until their domestic uprisings were brutally crushed before launching his badly prepared operation.

He talked big and made sweeping demands, yet everyone knew he lacked the resolve to follow through. The upcoming peace deal will inevitably be far worse than the JCPOA he originally tore down.

This war exposed the hard limits of Trump's posturing. When an adversary stood their ground and called his bluff, the entire might of the US armed forces could not cover up his cowardice and stupidity