Trump trapped in 'ultimate filter bubble' hiding his constant failures

President Donald Trump dances, as he delivers remarks on the economy, at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, July 27, 2026. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

President Donald Trump is "almost constantly wrongfooted" as his biggest moves keep falling apart, and according to a new analysis from The i Paper, he is the last person to see these failures coming.

In a Monday piece for The i Paper, journalist James Ball called it "particularly strange" how often Trump seems taken aback by the negative reception his announcements and ideas get from other world leaders. Typically, he argued, one would assume it is difficult for presidents to be surprised by anything, given their access to the "largest and most powerful intelligence agencies in the world."

One recent example he highlighted was Trump's announcement of a "monumental" Gaza disarmament deal with Hamas, something that seemed oddly lacking in "pomp and circumstance" for such a major breakthrough, with Israel notably absent. The reason for that absence soon became clear, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly shot down Trump's proposal, calling it "fictitious" and demanding a deal that went further.

"Netanyahu and Trump are supposed to be close friends," Ball explained. "Israel is the U.S.’s closest ally, and is deeply reliant on U.S. military and financial support for its survival. The US president should not be getting surprised or publicly embarrassed by Israel like this – and yet, here we are. The reality is that no one except Trump will be surprised by this: elections in Israel are just a few months away, and Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an extremely tough battle to hang on to the premiership – especially given his ongoing corruption trial, which hugely raises the stakes for him."

This example was hardly even an instance of Trump getting "played" by another country, Ball argued. Since Israel was never supportive of it, "Instead, he’s played himself."

"This kind of embarrassment is hardly an isolated incident, though," Ball added. "Trump is getting in the habit of announcing major peace plans and deals on a weekly basis, which usually fall apart within a matter of days, if not hours. He has announced peace deals with Iran – and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – so many times now that it barely makes headlines when he does. Trump’s approach to geopolitics seems to have been reduced to merely announcing what he wants to happen, and then getting increasingly angry when it doesn’t just magically come to pass."

Trump has trapped himself in "the ultimate filter bubble," given that he reportedly no longer attends daily briefings, and instead getting new information from Fox News, "a news channel that shamelessly panders to him," as well as "from sycophantic advisers who know what happens to anyone who tells Trump something he doesn’t want to hear."

"If Trump were just another 80-year-old whiling away his retirement at home, this would be harmless enough – but he’s not," Ball concluded. "Instead, he’s trying to run the world while in this state, so out of touch that he can’t even predict what his allies will do, let alone his enemies, and unable to think even one move ahead. Donald Trump likes to think he’s the master of the great game of geopolitics. In reality, he is doing little more than constantly playing himself."

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