Trump 'lost in the fog of war': analysis

Over the past couple of years, Donald Trump has explained away his tendency to ramble between topics by describing it as “the Weave,” a practice in which he careens from one subject to the next, theoretically returning to his original point. But now, says Bloomberg political columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, the entire administration has become caught in the Weave regarding its messaging on Iran, and its explanations have become “lost in the fog of war.”

Or in other words, “The Trump administration has a coherence problem.”

Take, for example, Trump’s approach when discussing the rising gas prices that have been a consequence of the war. One day, “high gas prices are only temporary, and a small price to pay for destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities, but high gas prices also benefit US oil and gas companies, and prices will soon be back to normal, but after the war, which will end soon, once Trump has a certain feeling that it should end.”

Or then there’s his habit of tossing off random war strategy musings via social media. On Wednesday, for example, he posted, “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!! President DJT.”

It is exactly this kind of “unfiltered and unfocused” statement that is not only tactically unhelpful — if not harmful — but that is characteristic of how he handles most matters.

As Henderson explains, within the past few days, Trump has claimed that an unnamed former president told him they wish they’d attacked Iran when they were in office (which all living presidents have since denied). He made public the private terminal medical diagnosis of a Republican Congressman as House Speaker Mike Johnson watched in horror and the audience gasped in shock. He declared that he could “take” Cuba. And he’s vacillated between begging America’s allies for help with the Strait of Hormuz and blustering that the U.S. could handle it alone.

Through it all, members of his administration have been struggling to “clean up after him,” with Tulsi Gabbard and Markwayne Mullin being grilled before congressional committees, and JD Vance running around trying to quell rising concerns with talk of what he calls the “American Renaissance.”

But no one’s buying it. As Henderson points out, just 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s actions on Iran, and a mere 26 percent approve of his handling of the cost of living.

“The weave does Trump no good,” Henderson concluded. “And through it all, Americans can see and feel their own harsh economic reality, while their president looks everywhere else, lost in the chaos of his own making.”