Former George Bush speechwriter David Frum says he’s read Trump’s vicious threats on social media, but what he hears is something significantly more squalid.
“Here's how it looks to me: Trump is like a man who's got his coat stuck in a car door and is banging on the car to let the coat go,” Frum told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace. “If you are going to fight Iran, you have to have a plan for what to do about that [Strait of Hormuz] choke point. I'm sure there are plans in drawers, but Donald Trump didn't have a plan, and he didn't have a plan because he had not got any political permission for this war.”
Trump failed to approach Congress or the American people, said Frum, and warn them that “the price of gas may go up, but it's worth it.” This means Americans were caught off guard are now furious at the consequences — and Trump knows it.
Now, gas prices predictably have risen past $4 a gallon in the U.S., with food prices and others threatening to follow. And as the world economy heads toward a recession, Frum says Trump is “begging [Iranians] with increasingly fearsome sounding threats” for his freedom.
“The threats are, in part, a coping mechanism for him to conceal the fact that he's actually begging to be let out of a dilemma of his own making,” said Frum. “Because while the Iranians are obviously taking tremendous tactical damage, the world economy is suffering. And while the Iranian regime is able to repress dissent, Trump can't repress stock markets, can't repress oil markets. The price of … crude hit $144 today, meaning still higher fuel prices on the way.”
“So, for all of his fearsomeness, you need to see this as a pathetic act,” Frum added. “He is begging the Iranians, ‘please let me go. And if you don't, I'll do terrible things.’”
But all the while, the threats keep escalating while a frustrated and angry Trump keeps postponing deadlines, with Frum pointing out that Trump’s original deadline for Iranian surrender was March 23rd, then March 28th, then April 6th, then April 7th, and now April 8th.
“It's probably a good guess that Trump will find a way to postpone this again,” Frum said.
