President Donald J. Trump is in way over his head. This is a fact that many of us knew a long time ago, but the cold fact is just hitting some Americans in the past few months. Mental acuity issues aside, he simply has no clue how to solve the problems plaguing our country. And to make matters worse, not only is he surrounded by minions whose loyalty is to him first and then the nation, but they are, as a whole, pretty incompetent individuals.
Trump continues to appeal to his ever-shrinking MAGA base while his domestic and foreign policy agendas serve no one, including the ultra-rich. And in Trump 2.0, there are no guardrails to distract him from his untethered agenda. Long gone are the likes of John Kelly, Jim Mathis, and Reince Priebus.
The president is now surrounded by stalwarts like Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., acquiescent House and Senate leadership, and a handpicked Supreme Court. And the results, related to just the Iranian conflict alone, have been devastating!
Trump’s Iran Policy is Dizzyingly Incoherent
I’d like to say that President Trump is dead wrong on his policy toward Iran, but I can’t. Not because I agree with it, but because I can’t figure out what it is or even if he has a policy on this combustible situation. I understand that he and his mental midget advisors thought they would follow Israel’s lead and bomb the hell out of the country and then wait for the downtrodden Iranian masses to take up arms and overthrow the despotic regime.
Obviously, a gross underestimation of the situation, but what followed is pure government amateur hour. To justify this attack on a sovereign country without consultation with Congress, Trump had to make a case that the U.S was under an imminent threat of a nuclear attack by Iran.
But secretary of state Marco Rubio shot that excuse down when he clearly stated that the Khomeini government was years away from deploying a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States. The president then changed his tune, saying it was all about regime change. Only to be corrected by Mr. Hegseth, who steadfastly said the Iranian people will determine who will lead their country and that we were staying out of it.
What’s the Mission?
Then came a litany of other explanations, such as removing Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and halting its exportation of global terrorism. The rationale moved to ensuring that Iran can no longer rain terror on our neighbors in the region through nuclear or non-nuclear weapons. Then the focal point of the White House’s policy seemed to center on pressuring Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international traffic, to ease price increases in fuel and other goods that are still crippling the world.
Mr. Trump’s solution to that. We executed our own blockade of the Strait and are not allowing any Iranian vessels safe passage. However, shortly after this announcement, the White House granted permission for Iranian and Russian oil tankers to sail through the Strait to ease global oil and natural gas shortages. With the profits from those fuel sales, both countries will have more funds to wage war (Russia against Ukraine) (Iran against the U.S., Israel).
Where That Leaves Us
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump is claiming victory over what, I am not sure. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed to international traffic, as it has since the U.S. and Israel initiated the conflict on February 28. And the administration is attempting to negotiate an agreement with Iran very similar to the 2015 pact President Obama reached with Tehran.
All the while, the president and his advisors are trying to persuade the public that, if hostilities continue, Congress is not required by law to pass the War Powers Act, citing the “ceasefire” as the reason. This, of course, runs counter to what the Constitution dictates in such a situation. So, the world waits while the policy-less Mr. Trump decides what his next hare-brained idea is to resolve the conflict.
