President Donald Trump thought that his regime-change "excursion" in Iran would be quick. Do a little bombing, take out the supreme leader, and have the remaining leaders in Iran come crawling back to him to negotiate a more favorable power structure.
But more than two weeks later, it's clear that Trump badly miscalculated.
Iran fought back. It bombed both the United States’ and its allies' military and oil assets in the Middle East, and it blockaded a critical waterway that transports much of the world's oil supply, thus driving up prices and threatening the global economy.
And Trump is now publicly crashing out, lashing out at United States' allies for refusing his pleas to bail him out, all while he warns the press that it could face consequences if it dares to report factually about the war.
On Sunday, Trump tried to extort NATO countries into helping the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz, telling NATO member nations that they will have a “very bad future” if they don't send their militaries to help open the Strait.
But NATO nations and the media responded to Trump's latest demands with a collective yawn.
Germany said it won't be helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"This war has nothing to do with NATO. It's not NATO’s war," German spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Monday, adding, "NATO is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defense of its territory."
The United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Japan all said they had no plans to send military assets to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, on March 10.
In fact, a British cabinet official said that the U.K. isn’t even flinching at Trump’s NATO threat.
“We always take the president seriously, but we have learned in the last 15 months or so since he came into office that there is a lot of rhetoric and statements,” Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said Monday.
Ouch.
Meanwhile, Trump's threat to revoke broadcast licenses for media outlets that don't report on the war the way Trump wants went ignored. Outlets broadly know that the First Amendment would protect them from any Trump administration attempts at retribution.
“Newsrooms are undeterred by Trump's criticism; attempts to deter and discredit wartime reporting are as old as war coverage itself,” CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter wrote in a post on X.
Shockingly, it appears the media may have learned from its mistakes in Iraq. At that time, news outlets uncritically reported the Bush administration's lies that were used to justify the invasion. Now, outlets are largely reporting about Trump's miscalculations this time around.
Backed against a wall in a quagmire of his own making, Trump is yelling at reporters aboard Air Force One and posting insane screeds on social media—his go-to methods for blowing off steam when things aren’t going his way.
He posted one rant on his Truth Social platform in which he whined about the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the disaster unfolding due to Trump's war, and accused Iran of "working in close coordination with the Fake News Media" to present a false narrative.
Trump also posted a two-part tirade against the Supreme Court and other federal judges who have blocked his illegal tariffs and attempts to prosecute his perceived enemies.
“This completely inept and embarrassing Court was not what the Supreme Court of the United States was set up by our wonderful Founders to be,” Trump whined. “They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so. All I can do, as President, is call them out for their bad behavior!”
Ultimately, the global economy is teetering on the brink, and we have an unhinged madman at the helm. Lord help us.
