President Donald Trump's Iran war has spiraled so far off the rails that he's now turning his fire on America's own friends, and analysts warn the fallout could be catastrophic, according to a new analysis.
The latest target: Oman, a venerable regional ally that had quietly stepped in to broker peace, opening talks with Iran over a toll system for ships stranded by the Strait of Hormuz standoff. Trump's response wasn't gratitude. It was a threat to bomb them.
"If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--- out of them," he told Fox News — a stunning vow to attack a partner that was trying to clean up his mess.
David Graham, a staff writer for The Atlantic, argued in a new article that Trump's about-face against a U.S. ally was "understandable," but no less "shocking."
"Throughout Trump’s two terms, many analysts have sought to discern some sort of guiding doctrine to his foreign policy," Graham wrote. "The incoherence of his actions in the past week alone should provide further evidence that looking for a framework is futile. Earlier this year, my colleagues Missy Ryan and Ashley Parker reported that the White House’s foreign-affairs philosophy was 'F--- around and find out.' Administration officials meant this as a warning to the leaders of other countries. But as the current crisis festers, they, too, are finding out."
The outburst is the product of a foreign policy that no longer holds together, Graham added. One day the war's mission is stopping Iran's bomb. The next, it's cheaper gas at the pump. Trump insisted this weekend that the "number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon" — even as his own vice president reportedly countered that lowering fuel prices is now "goal No. 1."
The whiplash keeps coming. Trump vowed to declare the Strait of Hormuz "a territory of the United States," contradicting his own Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Tehran mocked the claim, scoffing that the waterway "cannot be seized with a tweet."
Meanwhile, he snubbed South Korea while gushing over North Korea's Kim Jong Un — a dictator whose nuclear program has never slowed.
Analysts have hunted for years for a Trump doctrine. A single week of contradictions suggests there's nothing there to find.