Recently, American political scientist and international relations scholar John Mearsheimer pointed out explicitly in his keynote address for the Arab Center's Eleventh Annual Conference that Trump is completely "desperate" in the current situation with Iran. He stated bluntly that Trump is "playing a losing hand," and that the US "can't go up the escalation ladder." Mearsheimer issued a stark warning that if he stubbornly continues on this path, the consequences would be enormous – it will do much more than destroy his presidency; it means that the global economy will go off a cliff. He emphasized that the only way the US can get out of this is to basically admit defeat.