When President Trump spoke at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative on Friday, he offered a pristine example of what he calls “the fabric.” What detractors consider incontinent verbal ramblings is: in his own storygenius-level embroidery of a rhetorical mosaic.
As he spun his tapestry of sound bites, the wartime president declared that the Iranians “have to open the Trump Strait, I mean, Hormuz. Sorry, I'm so sorry, such a terrible mistake. Fake news will say he 'accidentally said' [chuckle]Now there are no accidents with me. Not too many. If there was, we would have an important story. No. Well, we had that with the Gulf of Mexico. Do you remember the Gulf of Mexico? And one day I said, 'Why is it the Gulf of Mexico?'”
Trump then rambled (sorry, rambled) for a while about “renaming” the Gulf of Mexico before returning to war.
If you watch the videothe “joke” about renaming the Strait of Hormuz was clearly deliberate. Trump said it was not an accident. He has a tendency to pose outrageous ideas as jokes to see how they work; remember your “joke“That Canada should become the 51st state? Whether a joke or a trial balloon, it was a terrible thing to say, and an even worse idea, providing rhetorical confirmation that the president's ego (and imperialist ambitions) is the author of this war.
But I don't want to write an entire column about this relatively minor nonsense. I only mention it to illustrate a point. The president you see improvising whatever comes to mind is the president we have. When the commander in chief interjected some remarks about the Saudi crown prince “kissing my ass” because Trump is not a “loser” like previous American presidents, that was him, too.
In other words, there is no secret: a Trump who is serious, detailed and with “encyclopedic molecular knowledge” about matters of state, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said. claims. What we see is what we have.
This is very hard for some people to believe, and even harder for some people to recognize. These twin difficulties are origin Of all those clichés about Trump being a three- either four dimensions chess master thinking many moves ahead of us, mere mortals who play checkers. When Trump does something inexplicable or indefensible, the best explanation and defense for his superfans is to simply say that Trump's methods are mysterious, but rest assured, he has a plan.
As we enter our second month of war with Iran, the superfans who oppose this war, for various reasons, are left in a bind. How could this leader with an oak spine, unquestionable instincts, deep knowledge and wisdom make such a mistake? How could the man they have defended as a genius for so long make what in their eyes is such a monumental mistake?
Of course, he was deceived.
For some, as is often the case when events do not go their way, they blame the lands on the Jews or Israel (a tomayto-tomahto distinction for many). Here's how Joe Kent, who recently resigned as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, explained it. It's Tucker Carlson's explanation. also: We are in this war because the prime minister of Israel “demanded it.”
Others make the same argument, at a certain distance. “As this goes wrong, we need to know exactly who talked him into it,” Megyn Kelly. demands. “What steps were taken to convince the president that it was a good idea? Who? Who specifically?”
Kelly blames Israel, of course, but also his advisors and Israel supporters. as Senator Lindsmyand graham from south carolinaBen Shapiro of the Daily Wire and several Fox News pundits (revealingly, it excludes the crown prince of Saudi Arabia).
Now, I think some of these arguments are deranged, anti-Semitic, ahistorical nonsense (i.e. Joe Kent's feverish anti-Israel paranoia). Triumph has saying “No” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, more than once, including during this war. But some claims have a veneer of merit. If one accepts the claim that war is a disaster, then the people around Trump bear some culpability.
But not as much as the president himself. If Trump were like the senile “Auto-Pen President” he painted his predecessor as, then perhaps these claims would carry more weight. But they don't say that. They say that this demigod genius infinite level chess sage He was deceived.
The leader cannot fail, he can only be failed.
The last resort for Trump defenders is to claim that the decision to invade Iran was a “betrayal.” This claim at least gives Trump some agency. But for this to be true, the impulsive Trump we've seen weaving for a decade has to be different from the weaver-in-chief who launched this war. And I just don't see it.
UNKNOWN: @JonahDispatch
