Conservative columnist George Will unloaded on President Donald Trump in a scorching new Washington Post editorial published Friday, branding the president "frivolous" and "oblivious" as global tensions mount.
The column, headlined "Amid an August of mounting danger, a frivolous, oblivious president," opens with a searing indictment: "This August features a stunning divergence. The world becomes more dangerous as U.S. governance becomes more frivolous."
Journalist Scott MacFarlane, now chief Washington correspondent for MeidasTouch Network, flagged the lead sentence on social media Friday, calling attention to Will's characterization of the president.
Will's editorial aims at Trump's handling of the ongoing conflict with Iran, faulting the president for launching a second military operation against Tehran just months after declaring the first strike had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, opening the largest Middle East campaign since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The columnist also skewered Trump's escalating feud with South Korea, writing that the president is "miffed" with Seoul over what he considers "insufficient help" with his second Iran operation.
Will's disdain for Trump is neither new nor incidental.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who won the award for commentary in 1977, publicly left the Republican Party in 2016 over Trump's rise, telling a Federalist Society luncheon, "This is not my party."
Since then, Will has repeatedly hammered Trump. In June, he delivered what was described as a blistering "autopsy" of the second term, writing that Trump's "worthy U.S. goal became a casualty of presidential frivolousness."
The latest broadside lands as Trump navigates a widening rift with Seoul, unresolved fighting with Iran, and questions over the intelligence assessments underpinning his war claims. A general who led the Defense Department's intelligence agency was fired earlier this year after concluding the June 2025 strikes had not destroyed Iran's nuclear program, as Will noted in his June column.
