Trump supporters must get a grip on reality. They must stop rationalizing his outrageous conduct as a wily negotiating tactic. They must understand how Trump’s moral depravity undermines America’s integrity and how destructive it has been to the nation’s global leadership these past 16 months. If they don’t, the damage done to the nation may well be irreversible.

It is inconceivable, for example, that any Republican can see Trump’s embrace of a two-week ceasefire in Iran as anything other than defeat. Iran has had a 10-point plan on the table for a couple weeks, which Trump previously called inadequate, yet he agreed Tuesday because he was desperate for an off-ramp to avoid backing down from his profane doomsday scenario that he posted online to destroy Iran’s civilization.

The result, so far, is a modified reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but giving Iran control over the flow of shipping that they didn’t have before and perhaps an added source of revenue. That’s a significant victory for Iran, and defeat for Trump. No spin can possibly make it otherwise.

Moreover, Trump’s war on Iran did not achieve regime change, or reduce the threat of Iran attaining a nuclear bomb. On the contrary, those in power are more hardened against the West (particularly America), and the popular uprising by Iranians against the regime has now almost entirely been replaced by its anger toward the U.S. That’s another huge win for the theocracy and the Revolutionary Guard in power.

Now, consider the fact that a third-rate nation, with a much inferior military, not only withstood a pounding from U.S. and Israeli forces, but have come out with more control over their affairs and increased dominance in the region (morally, politically and militarily), while America’s global credibility and moral leadership has been obliterated.

And despite the high number of targets hit, which Dept. of Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth loves to cite, the bottom line is that Iran has emerged stronger, while the U.S. military hasn’t achieved its goals and has spent untold billions of dollars in high-value ammunitions — depleting essential stockpiles, while strengthening Russia, China and Iran. Here’s a summation of the military campaign from a Trump-supporting Republican who for a year embraced Trump’s policies, until he no longer could take the idiocy. “There is no military solution to the conflict right now,” said Joe Kent, Trump’s counterterrorism adviser who resigned last month in protest of the war. “Every action that we’ve taken militarily has only strengthened the regime, and it’s done a lot to destabilize the entire region.”

But as long as MAGA Republicans believe Trump’s nonsense and can’t see through his bravado and lies, he will have a slim hold on power and will continue the nation’s unprecedented descent into moral ruin and economic decline.