President Donald Trump seems strangely checked out of the war he started against Iran, according to a new column.
The ceasefire appears likely to collapse ahead of Wednesday's deadline amid ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, but The Bulwark's Andrew Egger argued the 79-year-old president seemingly lacks even the most basic understanding of the situation.
"In one sense, we’re right back where we were last month — the strait closed, Iran intransigent, Donald Trump threatening," Egger wrote. "But that undersells the damage. A cancer patient who goes under the knife and wakes to discover they couldn’t remove the tumor isn’t likely to be comforted that at least the doctors stitched him up properly. The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz is becoming a global economic catastrophe, and it’s clear Trump is running out of options to compel Iran to stop throttling it."
Trump still seems to believe he can bully Iran into giving up, although he's always the one who winds up backing down, and despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's blustering pronouncements, Iran still has thousands of missiles and other weaponry to use against U.S. troops and their regional partners.
"But it isn’t just that Trump low on options: More and more, he barely seems to understand what’s going on in the conflict at even a basic layman’s level," Egger wrote. "His pronouncements — whether they be threats, triumphant announcements, or even just descriptions of what’s underway in the strait — resemble reality less with every passing day."
Trump already claims to have "solved" the war in Iran, but the war has refused to bend to his version of reality the way he's been able to warp the U.S. political scene.
"The hour is growing very late," Egger wrote. "Already the political damage is irreversible for Trump and his party: Energy Secretary Chris Wright acknowledged Sunday that domestic average gas prices would likely not return below $3 a gallon until 2027. (Today gas is north of $4.) And the simple fact causing it all — the same as it’s been all along — is that Trump, having chosen to kick the Iranian hornet’s nest, remains at a loss for what to do next."
"We’ve known he had no plan for months," Egger concluded. "But what’s becoming shockingly apparent now is how little he’s even paying attention to the problem."