opinion

Trump’s 'hacks and yes-women' can’t give him what he wants most

Conservative columnist Ross Douthat says it’s difficult to have a nice squishy sycophant and a smart person inside the same body.

“The seeming desire of [President Donald Trump] is for loyalty, sycophancy and TV-ready swagger,” said Douthat in the New York Times. “He wants to turn on Fox News and see his top officials performing like reality-show characters in the drama of his administration. He wants to sit in a cabinet meeting and listen to a litany of his accomplishments. He wants the decisions made in the West Wing or at Mar-a-Lago to be simply rubber-stamped in his departmental fiefs.

“He wants all that, but at the same time he also wants victory rather than defeat, and he definitely doesn’t want embarrassment,” Douthat added, while pointing out that “even inside his cocoon, Trump senses that things aren’t going well for him.”

It is then, said Douthat, that sycophancy fails.

“It doesn’t matter if you were acting on his orders; you will be punished for that unsuccessful service just as surely as if you’d tried to thwart his aims,” said Douthat. “… That’s the position [former Homeland Security head Kristi] Noem found herself in after the immigration enforcement debacle in Minneapolis. The fact that the sweeping crackdown in Tim Walz’s state and Ilhan Omar’s city was almost certainly what the president wanted earned the former South Dakota governor no political protection after it all went wrong.”

More recently, it was also the position Bondi found herself in, despite having dutifully carried out Trump’s bidding with the Epstein files and political prosecutions.

“The unpopularity of the former and the courtroom losses of the latter transformed her from sycophant to scapegoat, even though at every step she was expressing Trump’s own wishes,” said Douthat. “Likewise, when Hegseth reportedly told the president “let’s do it” in the run-up to the [Iran] war, he was merely being an enthusiastic yes man for a bellicose boss. But there’s no reward for being a loyalist if Trump’s grand plans don’t actually work out: In that case, you own the failure, not him.”

But Douthat said there were options for sycophants with a shred of intelligence.

“Hegseth, if he had the sense God gave a goose, could have tried to steer Trump to a purely military campaign against Iran — bombs and missiles without the strikes that targeted its leaders — satisfying the president’s hawkish impulse without putting the Iranian regime’s back against the wall,” said Douthat.

Bondi, instead of scatter-gunning a legion of hard-to-prosecute lawfare vendettas against Trump’s perceived enemies, could have focused her efforts on one particular political prosecution and lowered the goalpost enough to get the ball over.

“[But] these alternate scenarios are implausible, of course, because they envision hacks and yes-women suddenly discovering a different set of capabilities,” said Douthat.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump proves MAGA’s 'just do it' ethos is colossally dumb: report

President Donald Trump is a walking, talking embodiment of MAGA and its ethos. As such, he is also a clear example of how well MAGA arguments and talking points work when applied to the real world. In short: they apply poorly, says New York Times Columnist David French.

Times columnist and editors Michelle Cottle, Jamelle Bouie, Derek Arthur and French spent a portion of Saturday detangling Trump’s puzzling, not-at-all-a-war in Iran — where he has failed to name either a main goal or an end-game. He’s also enraged U.S. allies by running up the price of their oil and hurting their markets, and then demanded they step up and clean his mess in the Strait of Hormuz, even though few U.S. allies appear to have been alerted to Trump’s plan to strike Iran and is now planning a potential ground invasion.

But striking first and thinking later is the essence of MAGA, said French. As is bluster, muscle flexing and neglecting to turn in your report at the end of all the posturing.

“I don’t think people appreciate how much it is core to the ethos and worldview of MAGA that — on problem after problem after problem that we faced as Americans — the actual underlying mistake of previous administrations is that we were just never tough enough; that we just didn’t fight the war with the gloves off enough, or we haven’t been punitive enough, or we haven’t tried to bully people enough,” French told the Times panel podcast. “… [T]here’s this phrase you see on MAGA that says, ‘You can just do things.’ And what they mean by that is that you could just exercise power and you can change the world.”

French said MAGA proponents were thrilled that Trump’s kidnapping and detainment of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro went as well as it did, and they laud that event as “their most successful version” of the “gloves off” MAGA ethos. But French said swinging your fists doesn’t work so well most times in a world with formidable opponents who are capable of thinking for themselves.

“You see the same pattern: ‘We have to pummel people harder.’ And that works with Republican members of Congress, for example, but it doesn’t tend to work with other sovereign nations,” said French. “Other sovereign nations don’t like to be pummeled. … [T]hey’ll find a way to stop or prevent the pummeling, and it’s not always the way you want. So, for example, if you’re trying to torment Canada, well, you can’t go crying if Canada says, ‘We’re going to forge a closer economic relationship with China and Europe than with the U.S., because we have self-preservation interests.’”

But French said pummeling sometimes “has the exact opposite effect,” and “alienates” allies. Plus, it’s the dumbest, most outdated tool in the toolbox.

“It’s not as if nobody thought ‘well, why not use force?’ before. I mean, that’s the oldest story in the book. That’s Vladimir Putin to the core. Again, sometimes that is appropriate, but as a universal way of dealing with the world, it is extraordinarily dangerous and counterproductive.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Law professor tears apart Dershowitz's book arguing Trump can serve a third term

(This article has been corrected to clarify that Washington Monthly Legal Affairs Editor Garrett Epps was not a student of attorney Alan Dershowitz. I apologize for the error. --Lynch)


Former Jeffrey Epstein lawyer and President Donald Trump ally Alan Dershowitz has published a whole book arguing for Trump to have a third term. But Washington Monthly Legal Affairs Editor Garrett Epps is having none of it.

Dershowitz made good arguments back in the 1960s and 1970s. But Dershowitz is a different man now, said Epps — and what he’s written is bunk.

This doesn’t mean Epps is not an admirer, however.

“I gladly took part in a symposium honoring his career,” said Epps.

But this doesn’t mean the lawyer who helped arrange a sweetheart deal for convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein makes the best arguments in Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term?: My Nonpartisan Legal Analysis.

Epps criticism comes at some risk because Epps said Dershowitz, is a vindictive man who “… dishes it out but doesn’t want to take it.”

“When a political scientist accused him of plagiarism, Dershowitz wrote to the offender’s superiors demanding that he be denied tenure; the university obliged,” said Epps. “When a Yale psychiatrist suggested that Dershowitz’s speech patterns seemed to be drawing closer to those of President Trump, Dershowitz demanded that Yale rescind her teaching appointment; Yale obliged. When Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown’s dogged reporting broke open the full extent of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Dershowitz (lawyer for and a friend of Epstein) wrote to the Pulitzer Prize committee and enjoined them from giving Brown the prize. They did not.”

Still, Dershowitz’ arguments that Trump could be “elected or appointed vice president and later succeeding to the presidency,” “being elected or appointed speaker of the House and succeeding under the Presidential Succession Act,” or “being chosen by the House of Representatives following an Electoral College deadlock” is not only a stretch but an outrage.

“These queries leave me profoundly torn. Part of me says the answer is ‘no’; the other part says ‘F——, no.’” said Epps. “Dershowitz and some other scholars say that there is doubt. They are (how shall I put this?) wrong.”

Similarly, Dershowitz’ claim that his arguments are “an honest, objective, nonpartisan analysis of a complex series of interesting issues” are also bunk.

“Anyone reading this book carefully cannot reasonably conclude that it is partisan advocacy rather than a neutral exercise in constitutional analysis,” wrote Dershowitz in his book. “Former President Barack Obama, because of his relative youth (sixty-four), is at least as likely to benefit from my analysis as seventy-nine-year-old President Trump.”

That’s a dog, said Epps, that “won’t even leave the kennel, much less hunt.”

“Let’s review the bidding: Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, is the current president of the United States. Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, has demanded a third term. Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, has followers who attacked the United States Capitol to win a second term for Trump to which he hadn’t been elected,” said Epps. “Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, is currently the commander-in-chief of the military. Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, has recently attempted to use the American military for politicized ‘law enforcement.’ Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and impose military rule on parts of the country he deems unfriendly to him. “

“And Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, is a former client of Dershowitz,” added Epps.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Columnist says Trump’s Iran war 'emasculated' America

America has been “emasculated,” writes The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last, who argues that Iran has emerged victorious in President Donald Trump’s war — and that America has lost — as he examines the scope of our defeat.

“When this war ends in ‘two or three weeks’ the Iranian regime will be more securely in power than it was before the war and it will have demonstrated the power of a strategic weapon,” Last declares.

Trump started the war more than 30 days ago without stating any clear goals. Over that time, the president and his administration officials have suggested several goals, as Last writes: “Topple the Islamic Republic and install a new regime” and “Leave the regime in place, but decapitate it and exercise control over the choice of its next leader.”

During his prime-time White House address Wednesday night, Trump “abandoned every single one of these objectives.”

Instead, the Islamic Republic still controls Iran, and its supreme leader was chosen without Trump’s input. There’s been no change to the status of its nuclear program, its drones continue to fly, and the military has no idea what Iran’s stock of ballistic missiles looks like.

“Trump concedes that America is willing to end operations with the strait still closed and has punted responsibility for achieving that objective to other nations,” Last observes. He concludes: “If, in February, you had told Iran that they could trade all of the above outcomes for the destruction of their navy and air force, they would have taken that deal in a heartbeat.”

Last highlights the dire situation:

“By abdicating responsibility for the strait and saying it should be someone else’s problem, America is inviting into existence a rival economic and military alliance.”

Calling it “absolute madness,” Last warns that China will step in.

“If America isn’t going to lead, someone else will—not just in the Strait of Hormuz but around the world. Trump is giving China the green light to exert its influence in the Indo-Pacific. He is opening the door for Chinese cooperation with Europe. He is putting Taiwan—and hence the global supply of semiconductors—at China’s mercy. He is prompting the rest of the world to organize a new global order according to their interests.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Nicolle Wallace destroys conservative media for painting Trump as ‘the victim’

MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace blasted conservative media personalities, accusing President Donald Trump’s allies Megyn Kelly and Laura Ingraham of trying to absolve him of responsibility in his own Iran war.

Wallace set up the destruction by playing a clip from Monday’s edition of “The Ingraham Angle,” during which the Fox News host asked whether Trump was “fully briefed about the risks” of the military operation in the Persian Gulf region before launching missile strikes.

“Was he then able to take it all in and understand the complexity of this — how complex it could actually get and further possibilities of casualties or other damage, the difficulty of dealing with these people — or was he told this would be relatively quick in and out?” Ingraham asked.

But Wallace razzed that take, calling it “quite convenient.”

“Apparently, Donald Trump is never wrong. But when he is wrong, when he gets something wrong, as the MAGA newscasters are starting to worry, maybe it must be someone else’s fault,” said Wallace, adding that in the eyes of Trump’s loyal backers, the president “can’t fail.” Instead, “he can only be failed.”

Wallace argued the non-stop pep rally wasn’t anything new, with similar cheerleading following Trump’s push for tariffs, his immigration failures, and his proposal to invade a NATO ally to conquer the island of Greenland, among many other things. But Wallace warned that the situation with Iran “is quite different.”

“One: men and women have died. Two: the MAGA coalition, as we’ve come to understand it over the last nine years, is blowing up before our eyes,” said Wallace. “So this justification that maybe he can’t take in information represents a new, rather insulting, but subtle and ingenious effort to split the difference — maybe to criticize Donald Trump’s acuity and capacity without criticizing the little teddy bear himself.”

And in any case, Wallace said the narrative from the Trump-friendly media “completely contradicts” White House’ claims that U.S. military action in Iran comes straight from “Trump’s gut feeling.”

Even if Ingraham’s take was correct and “Trump was the victim of a bad briefing,” said Wallace, as commander in chief, Trump is still responsible. “Who would have assembled the bad briefing?” she asked. “These are his people. They’re nobody else’s.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

'Wipeout' is coming unless the GOP finds real accomplishment to point to: insider

Republicans rode President Donald Trump’s coattails to victory in the House and Senate in 2024, and with control of all three federal elective branches Dispatch Senior Editor Michael Warren says they should’ve owned the place.

The southern border is closed, said Warren, and Republicans had big plans under Trump, but nothing they’ve produced since 2024 is going to last, and now the party is virtually circling the drain.

“What, exactly, has all of this been for?” asked Warren, a former senior writer with the Weekly Standard. “That question looms over not just the DHS funding impasse but so much of Trump’s chaotic second term so far. The answer ought to be depressing for the president’s supporters: not much.”

Whatever boon Warren expected from renewing Trump’s first-term tax cuts has been “muddled by the president’s spasmodic approach to the economically dubious policy of tariffs and trade protectionism,” he said. Similarly, Trump’s success at closing the border has been hopelessly marred by violence committed by ICE agents and the new system’s bungled rollout.

“The political result of all of this is abysmal approval ratings for Trump and the sense that his party is on the path to a wipeout at the polls in November — and with very little in the way of lasting achievements,” said Warren.

Such low returns haven’t been the rule in past election sweeps. When President Barack Obama’s party got “shellacked,” at least the Democrat Party walked away with “a massive health care law that bears his name, codified insurance coverage for preexisting conditions, and has been largely untouchable despite Republicans railing against it for years afterward,” said Darren.

“Identifying a similar consolation prize will be a challenge, if and when the Republicans lose their narrow majority in 2026,” said Darren. “It’s unlikely Trump’s only notable legislative priority, the SAVE America Act, can pass the Senate, where it’s currently languishing. … Otherwise, there’s no significant legislation, past or future. No codified change to domestic policy that will transform the country and fulfill Republican hopes and dreams. No evident payoff to spending down the governing party’s political capital.”

“To paraphrase The Office’s Creed Bratton, if Trump and the Republicans can’t create something enduring with all this power, then what’s this all been about? What are they working toward?” said Darren.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump’s game is as 'predictable' as it is 'pathetic'

Politicos are quick to point out President Donald Trump’s unpredictability. But what if his randomness isn’t as erratic as believed?

“One of the most boring, aggrandizing cliches of our age is that Donald Trump is unpredictable. That, like Cato Fong – the chandelier-swinging martial arts manservant in the Pink Panther movies – Trump can ambush his unsuspecting opponents with a swift karate chop to the nether regions. A perpetual reflex test on the entire world,” said Ipaper writer Emily Maitlis. “But what if Trump is less Cato, more Clouseau? The fumbling French inspector who leaves a wake of chaos in every job he attempts? What if it’s not only possible to second-guess Trump, but to predict him before he actually knows he’s going to move?”

Observers are already beginning to notice that Trump’s most Earth-shaking moves erupt on Friday night or early Saturday, conveniently when the markets are closed for the weekend. Trump sent his military to nab Venezuela’s leader in the early hours of a Saturday. American bombs also plastered Iran on a February Saturday. Even the first time Trump whacked Iran from the comfort of his chair was June of last year — on a Sunday, to be precise, said Maitlis

“The pattern is the same. Threaten on Truth Social. Bomb at the weekend,” said Maitlis. “And try and de-escalate by the time the traders are back at their desks on Monday morning, after Trump’s panicked by the rising price of oil.”

Traders have noticed the trend outside of wargames, as well. Trump announced his infamous ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs shortly after markets closed, with the tariffs kicking in after midnight, on a Saturday in April.

“Just in time for (checks notes) Sunday,” Maitlin said.

But Trump is called “TACO Trump” for a reason, primarily because a market backlash can predictably spank him into reversal.

“The following week [after Liberation Day] was historically rough – markets slumped to their lowest level of the year before he backflipped and announced a 90-day pause in tariffs over 10 per cent,” said Maitlin. “The policy switch sent stocks rallying for their best single day since the financial crash. Trump claimed the credit, and anyone who’d studied Trump for more than half an hour could emerge with their pockets full. You no longer need to be a sage of the markets; you just have to understand when Trump’s getting rattled.”

“As predictable as it is often pathetic. If you want to guess the markets, and guess the world moves, you just have to read his pain,” Maitlin added.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

'Has-beens, never-weres and a felon' comprise candidates in Trump country: conservative

Conservative Dispatch CEO and editor Steve Hayes visited Bonita Springs, Florida, during campaign season and says he found the kind of political personalities you get in “Trump country.”

Former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn was one of the first personalities Heyes shined a light on trying to nab Florida’s 19th Congressional District. In his article, titled “Meet the Has-Beens, Never-Weres, and Felon Locked in a Trumpy Primary,” he makes clear he is not impressed.

“That Cawthorn is a viable candidate — indeed, given his name recognition and MAGAworld celebrity status, he’s considered a real contender—says a lot about the contest in this dark red corner of Florida’s Gulf Coast and about the state of the Republican Party in the Trump era,” said Hayes, recounting Cawthorn’s congressional service beginning “with a rousing speech to the pro-Trump mob at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” where he praised the mob’s “willingness to fight, declared the 2020 election fraudulent, and later voted against certification.”

But that same career ended with “a flurry of bizarre and discrediting moments over the weeks leading up to the GOP primary for his reelection campaign,” said Hayes.

“A week after he lost that primary contest, the House Ethics Committee announced it was investigating the congressman for a possible improper relationship with a staffer and for a potential conflict of interest in his promotion of the LGB (Let’s Go Brandon) cryptocurrency,” for which he was ultimately fined $15,000,” said Hayes.

Another Trump Republican with a legal background would be former New York U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, who was charged with lying to the FBI in 2018, on top of charges related to insider trading. Republican leaders stripped Collins of his committee assignments. And even though he initially insisted on his innocence, two months later he accepted a plea deal. Three months after that he confessed his guilt at his sentencing hearing.

“Jonathan Barr, another lawyer for Collins, told Judge Vernon Broderick: ‘He accepted responsibility for his crimes, he has demonstrated sincere remorse. There is no excuse for the conduct. He doesn’t make any excuses for the conduct,” reports Hayes.

At the community meeting in Florida Hayes said Collins “used his opening remarks to emphasize (again and again) his coziness with Trump, [but] he left out the best evidence of their close relationship: Trump pardoned Collins after his guilty pleas and let him out of prison just two months into a two-year sentence.

But being an ally of Trump is what really matters in this deep-red Trump district, said Hayes. In fact, of all the candidates (and there are many more than Cawthorne and Collins) the only candidate whose website didn’t lead with Trump is Jim Oberweis, said Hayes. But of course his campaign—like all the others—is “nudging the White House political team for a Trump endorsement.

Every candidate is allied on policy, so the only advantage is which one gets the presidential nod, said Hayes.

“Nobody’s really campaigning — except to campaign to Trump,” said Francis Rooney, the former representative for the district. “The idea of Trump, the impact of Trump and MAGA is so overwhelming right now that the people want to be in that tent. And so they’re focusing on the things that are going to get the attention of the MAGA leadership.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

TSA agents wallop federal agents needing 'riot gear' to 'move a bag'

It’s a bad time to be a Transportation Security Officer at La Guardia, reports Curbed Magazine, especially with fatal airport crashes, canceled flights, long, snaking lines and a government shutdown forcing TSA officers to work for free.

But then comes the very well-paid ICE agents to stand behind you while you work for free. That, said La Guardia TSA officer and union president Kyle Pigott, is a step too far.

“[ICE] is the reason that we’re not getting paid,” Pigott told Curbed. “And now I’m working next to that person. And they’re getting paid to do nothing.”

TSA agents have been laboring without pay for weeks amid an ongoing shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats refusing to agree to a Homeland Security funding bill without measures to rein in ICE and CBP agents. Democrats insisted on new citizen protection tactics after a slate of ICE-related killings under President Donald Trump.

“A tweet went out and the next day they’re at the airport walking around sipping coffees, holding on to their vest. They arrived on Monday, and now they’re hanging out in the break room doing nothing. They’re warming up their lunch. I don’t know what you’re hungry from — you didn’t do anything!” ranted Pigott.

Meanwhile, Pigott said he and other agents were missing two and a half paychecks by Wednesday. Some have had to take out unemployment assistance or resort to predatory loans to pay reoccurring bills, including car and mortgage.

Additionally, Pigott said he resented agents’ insistence on dressing like they are in a war in the middle of an airport.

“Why do you need your vest and gun to move a line? That’s weird,” said Pigott. “If police said they were going to come in and help you move a bag or a tray, I don’t think they’d come in riot gear. It’s gonna make anybody feel uncomfortable. Don’t you guys have ICE T-shirts? Don’t they have ICE polos?”

Pigott said news scenes of near-empty processing airport lines by midday had nothing to do with the addition of Homeland Security agents and their hot lunches.

“If you’re coming with a news camera crew at 9 or 10 a.m. and you’re like, ‘The line’s not here,’ it’s because we’ve been working on it since 4 a.m. Once you get it chugging, it’s going to keep going, but you’ve gotta push the boulder first. Show up at 4 a.m. when it’s a standstill and the lines are going down the steps — that’s when it’s terrible.”

Pigott added that unless U.S. leaders agree to a funding solution the lines will only get longer, regardless of how many ICE agents Trump assigns to stand around and look tough.

“[A]t the end of the day, what’s going to happen? There’s gonna be less and less people coming into work. ICE is there, but it doesn’t make the line any shorter,” said Pigott. “They don’t make the machines move faster.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Former Republican fears 'complete nut jobs' in charge of the White House

Podcaster and former reality show star Angie “Pumps” Sullivan said she grew up in a Republican home and stayed true to the faith, until around the time she discovered the immorality and low IQ of candidate and later President Donald Trump.

“I grew up a Republican. I was raised by Republicans that are now MAGA,” Sullivan told Bulwark podcaster Tim Miller. “[But] … my entire life blew up and I had to reexamine how I viewed my religion, evangelical Christianity, and that spilled over into politics.”

It is with the candor of personal experience, then, that Sullivan admits the Trump administration has “let complete nut jobs that are not tethered to reality into positions of power.”

“Like, we have the dumbest people in the world in positions of power,” Sullivan told Miller. “When you really look at it, you go around the cabinet and you think this is the biggest collection of dip—— I have ever seen in my entire life. … It would be hard to try to even get a collection of dip—— that are dumber.”

Sullivan referenced a clip of Gregg Phillips, Trump’s chosen head of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, who claims to have “teleported” to a Waffle House.

“He teleported to a Waffle House in a car, and I received some messages from folks who are career officials inside the administration, and they're like, ‘this guy is actually the medium [crazy],’” said Miller. “‘If you knew some of the other people that I have to report to, they're like, you don't even know.’ The collection of dip—— that you see at the top are bad, but once you go down the scale, you get more of the Waffle House teleportation guy.”

Sullivan then lit into new Homeland Security head Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)

“I mean, he's 5'2"-ish, maybe. I mean, he's small [so] he carries a box. … There's a picture. Your producer can find it of him at a podium talking to another person. So, we call him Senator Boosterbox,” said Sullivan. “Markwayne Mullen was picked because he is a dip——. He is not smart. His grammar is horrible. And the reason they chose him is that he will do whatever they tell him because he is: A, not smart, and: B, not interested in doing anything other than plastering his lips to Donald Trump's a——. So, make no mistake. He is too stupid to run anything, much less the Department of Homeland Security.”

Mullin, she added, like many members of the Trump 2.0 administration, “is a religious zealot” guided by Project 2025, which Sullivan said is now dictating “policy in the White House.”

“These religious nuts are controlling policy … It's the biggest bunch of kooks you've ever met in your life,” Sullivan confirmed.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web

Trump walked straight into a trap he saw coming —and couldn't stop himself: analyst

How do you tumble into a sandpit that you’ve learned to spot in front of others? You’ll have to ask President Donald Trump, says MS NOW analyst Steve Benen, because Trump identified the exact same trap into which he’s now managed to blunder.

“Shortly before Election Day 2012, then-television personality Donald Trump wrote via social media, ‘Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin — watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate,’” said Benen.

A year later, Benen said Trump put out another crystal ball prediction amid concerns about a possible U.S. confrontation with Iran.

“Remember what I previously said — Obama will someday attack Iran in order to show how tough he is.” Trump tweeted.

“More than a decade later, the missives are easy to mock,” said Benen, “but the future president’s online messages revealed an underlying belief: Presidents who launch wars, Trump suggested, should expect to see an improvement in their public standing.”

His assumption wasn’t altogether absurd, said Benen. Polls have shown a “rally around the flag” effect in the immediate aftermath of a military offensive abroad. So, Trump somehow took to heart the lesson that launching a war would broadcast strength while somehow missing his earlier wisdom that launching an Iran war could put both the nation and his nemesis Obama in a tough spot.

Benen said the need for a quick show of strength appeared to be brewing inside Trump’s head weeks before he launched his official attack on Iran.

“A few days before launching the war, Trump did something he rarely does,” said Benen. “He acknowledged his poor public standing. At a White House event, Trump briefly conceded, ‘It just amazes me that there’s not more support out there.’”

And then came his attack, and all the problems it predictably brought. A month later, Benen said Trump did not get the benefit of a rally around the flag boost, with Reuters reporting Trump’s approval falling “to its lowest point since he returned to the White House,” thanks to the resulting surge in fuel prices and widespread disapproval of the war.

“A month later, his support has gone from bad to worse,” said Benen. “Republican officials and candidates who are concerned about their prospects in the 2026 midterm elections would be wise to take note.”

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
@2026 - AlterNet Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. - "Poynter" fonts provided by fontsempire.com.