Donald Trump’s Iran Standoff Spurs US Defense Summit and Tehran Protests

President Donald Trump chaired a two‑day defense and innovation summit at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania, urging rapid expansion of missile and air‑defence stockpiles depleted after recent clashes with Iran. The meeting, hosted by Sen. David McCormick, brought together senior defence officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and executives from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, SpaceX and other firms, to discuss billion‑dollar investments in AI, robotics and new weapons systems.

At the same time, streets in Tehran displayed large billboards and banners portraying Trump dead in a coffin, accompanied by slogans such as “We will kill Trump” in Persian and English. The images, erected in public squares and on a major highway, reflect rising public anger in Iran over continued US attacks on Iranian targets and the collapse of a fragile cease‑fire.

Investors in global commodities markets responded to the volatility of Trump’s Iran policy by trading cheap put‑spread options on oil futures, a strategy dubbed “TACO” (Trump Always Chickens Out). The surge in protective trades underscores the broader economic uncertainty tied to the escalating US‑Iran confrontation.