The old and weak president is losing — because he’s old and weak

U.S. President Donald Trump attends the commencement ceremony at West Point Military Academy in West Point, New York, U.S., May 24, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

I was surprised. Though Donald Trump is the weakest president of my lifetime, in terms of principle and character, I didn't think he would set himself up to prove that to the world.

Yet that’s what he did. The president issued an ultimatum to the Iranians via a social media post. Open the Strait of Hormuz in the next 48 hours or the US will “obliterate” Iran’s energy infrastructure. Open it up, he said Saturday, “without threat … from this exact point in time.”

The Iranians responded immediately with a threat of its own. If the president followed through, they would target the energy infrastructure of all the countries surrounding it, thus deepening the global energy crisis that Trump started when he unilaterally attacked Iran.

By early Monday, Trump said JK JK.

Of course, he didn’t say it like that. Via a social media post, again, the president said that, since issuing his 48-hour ultimatum, the US and Iran have been in talks regarding the “COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”

“BASED ON ... THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS," he said.

But there are no talks. “Remarks by the US president are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said. “While there have been initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, Iran’s response has been clear: It did not start the war and all such requests should be directed to Washington.”

So to recap: Trump issues a threat. Iran issues its own. He backs down, but lies about it. Iran says hoo boy, that man's a lair, then explains why he’s lying, turning itself into an honest broker standing in stark contrast to a world leader who’s lost control of a war he started.

In the mind of this president, what does it take to win? Whether the question is “illegal aliens,” international trade or military conflict, the answer is always the same: “be strong.”

“We have to be strong,” Donald Trump said last month during the annual State of the Union address, “because hopefully we will seldom have to use this great power that we built together. It’s really called peace through strength. That has been very, very effective.”

Yet here we are. Trump is trying to do to Iran what he does to friends and allies, at home and abroad, but he’s realizing that he can’t bully a highly determined enemy. If there is peace – if he quits his war – it will be through weakness, not strength. Little Iran will have proved it.

While every day brings new evidence of Trump’s weakness, the last three have been head-spinning. Before the clock on his ultimatum had run out, he said “now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent Democrat Party!”

Then there's this sequence of events compiled by Gold and Geopolitics:

Friday’s press gaggle. Barely exaggerated: at 12:03 PM, President Trump told reporters he wanted a ceasefire with Iran. At 12:05 he declared victory. At 12:07 he announced he was sending Marines. At 12:08 he said no boots on the ground. At 12:11 he said he did not want a ceasefire. At 12:16 he declared victory again. At 12:17 he asked for a ceasefire. At 12:23 he told NATO they were cowards. At 12:29 he said Iran was begging for a ceasefire. At 12:31 he said everything was perfect. At 12:36 he said $500 oil was a good thing. At 12:37 he demanded Iran open Hormuz. At 12:39 he said Hormuz was never closed. At 12:41 he said the US was not at war with Iran. At 12:42 he declared victory in Iran.

Some say he’s manipulating markets. I think that’s correct but in a narrow sense. It’s the only move he has right now. With the strait, Iran has him over a barrel. To keep the "economic pain" from rising to intolerable levels, he has to lie. And for now, the lies seem to be working.

But I also think the sheer volume of lies and chaos compels us to look behind the usual explanations. Yes, he’s manipulating markets. Yes, as I will never tire of saying, he’s the weakest president ever. But we’re now talking about more than just weakness of character. We’re not talking about weakness of the brain. The commander-in-chief is 79 years old.

Former General Paul Eaton, who trained combat troops during the Iraq War, said watching him consider a possible ground invasion to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was like watching a “malignant narcissist who is drifting into a state of dementia that is difficult to manage.”

MS Now’s Matt Fuller said that if the age question applied to Joe Biden, it applies to Trump. “The reason Biden’s age was a fair topic is because it spoke to his capacity to make big decisions — about war and peace, about our economy, about the direction of our country. So given Trump’s recent behavior, why isn’t there more discussion about his capacity?”

Iker Seisdedos is the Washington-based correspondent for El Pais, a Spanish newspaper that also publishes in English. He interviewed three cognitive specialists. They all told him that “the deterioration of [Biden and Trump] is not comparable. The argument essentially boils down to this: Biden was aging, very much and very quickly; Trump is developing dementia.”

But setting aside the question of the president's cognitive decline, and the question of why the Washington press corps continues to overlook his increasingly obvious deficits, I think we know the story that Donald Trump would tell if a Democratic president were in his shoes.

The old and weak president is losing, because he’s old and weak.

“We have to be strong,” he would say.

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