The exits are being measured.
WSJ reports Trump privately told senior aides he'd walk away without a nuclear deal, with victory declared the moment the strait fully reopens.
Tehran heard it too, and an adviser to Iran's parliament speaker made the strategy official: no deal with this president at all, just WAIT OUT his term and negotiate with the next one.
Run out the clock while the blockade bills pile up in Washington, not Tehran.
Larry Johnson's military contacts see the same ending.
His sources now believe the walk-away is real, and he reads the silence after every struck ship as confirmation.
Even an Eurasia Group analyst told the Journal: "The Iranians fully believe Trump wants out, which is why they are playing hardball."
Washington's fallback plan is pipelines: route the oil around the strait and stop needing Iran's permission.
Larry pulls that apart with numbers.
A pipeline carries crude and nothing else, while the Gulf ships out a quarter of the world's liquefied natural gas, a third of its sulfur and urea, and nearly half its helium, the ingredients behind fertilizer, chips, and rockets.
Nobody is building five separate systems across a war zone.
@newsonof
