President Donald Trump's anxiety is mounting as he faces a post-Trump age and could respond with a fresh crisis, warned a Wall Street Journal columnist.
In an opinion column published on Thursday, conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan argued that Trump has a "real fear of boredom," and his restlessness could push him to generate conflict.
Noonan framed Trump as newly vulnerable and pointed to a RealClearPolitics poll showing him at 39 percent approval against 59 percent disapproval. She also looked at an Economist poll putting him even further underwater.
"Now he looks as if he doesn't know what his next move is," Noonan wrote. "He's uncertain. He doesn't look...competent."
She noted that Trump "has always had a hearty appetite for combat, and there is no reason to believe that will change. Combat is his default political mode." However, "everyone knows a post-Trump world is coming, about two years after the November election," and Trump already looks "restless," Noonan warned.
"He creates drama or a crisis, arouses a counterforce, attacks this new enemy, experiences fear—will my luck hold?—defeats the new enemy, feels relief, relaxes," Noonan wrote. "Then, restless again and on the prowl, he creates new drama."
Noonan wrote that the mentality comes with a faith that "things just break his way," and suggested it runs deep. She mentioned Regime Change, the book about his second administration by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, and a scene where Trump spoke to Tucker Carlson ahead of the Iran war.
"I know you're worried about it, but it's going to be OK," Trump told Carlson, who was trying to talk him out of it. Trump said he knew everything would be all right "because it always is," per Noonan.
Trump's search for drama and conflict is "a real weakness," but as president, the stakes are "often high, and when you fail that is some big failure," Noonan warned.