Tehran Employed Psychiatric Advisers to Navigate Trump's Temperament

The strategy emerged following initial bilateral talks in Islamabad this past April. According to an anonymous Iranian official, the move was designed to calibrate the tone of communications during the drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at ending the Middle East conflict. The official noted that Trump’s reactions improved once these psychological recommendations were integrated into written exchanges. Tehran’s negotiators prioritized the sophistication of these messages, intending to secure their historical legacy should the correspondence eventually become public.

Public perception of the president’s temperament remains a point of contention. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this year indicated that 61 percent of Americans, including 30 percent of Republicans, perceive the 80-year-old leader as having grown erratic with age. Since his inauguration in January 2025, Trump has maintained a rapid pace of policy shifts, from sweeping tariff implementations to aggressive immigration enforcement.

Despite the unconventional nature of the Iranian preparations, the diplomatic gamble appears to have yielded a tentative agreement. A formal signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi confirmed that lead negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will represent Tehran, while Vice President JD Vance is slated to lead the American delegation.