The “Strait of Trump”? What happened to Trump University and the Trump Winery? Donald Trump has spent his life putting his name on just about everything (most recently the Kennedy Center), so it’s not surprising he wants to add a Persian Gulf waterway to his collection. Otherwise, except for this latest branding opportunity, the president has supposedly grown bored with the war in Iran and just wants to look at a daily briefing with videos showing the most successful strikes against Iran.
After promising Americans no more endless foreign wars, it increasingly looks like that’s what Trump has got us into. Preventing Iran from having a nuclear bomb is a valid objective, but the way he has gone about it is proving disastrous. (I suspect he was partly motivated by a desire to please the Saudis and get his son-in-law Jerrod Kushner more millions for his private equity firm, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.)
Trump freely admits he didn’t expect Iran to strike our allies in the Gulf Region. Wow! Did he really think the Iranians would just sit there while the US bombed their country and killed their leadership? Didn’t he consider the consequences of his actions? Didn’t he realize that the first thing the Iranians would do is cut off the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz and disrupt the world energy supply? As became evident during last year’s tariff fiasco, Trump doesn’t understand that he’s living in the 21st century and the US is part of an international economy, in which energy prices can rise in the US regardless of whether we are “energy self-sufficient.” Does he realize that the price of oil doesn’t only impact the price at the pump but countless derivative products, including fertilizer and plastics. In other words, the price of everything is likely to go up, making his “affordability” problem even worse. (Despite what Trump thinks, he did not “win” affordability.)
The Only Thing the “Save America Act” is Meant to Save is Trump—from Another Impeachment!
Just when the country needs homeland security more than ever, Trump blocked a deal to pay TSA agents so he can pass his ridiculous, undemocratic “Save America Act,” which requires voters to have proof of US citizenship. (The claim that American elections are being stolen by non-citizen voting is demonstrably false, but it appeals to Trump’s MAGA base, who continue to fear they are losing their country to the “other.”) Denying voters their franchise is an obvious last-ditch attempt to forestall a terrible Republican defeat in the 2026 midterms and avoid another impeachment. (Note: Trump and his Republican allies seem to think the act would adversely impact minorities who tend to vote Democratic, but there is reason to think it may impact many, mostly Republican, rural voters as well.)
Some of Trump’s supporters still buy into the notion that he’s a “strategic genius,” but at this point I’m skeptical if he even knows where he is most of the time. Did you see him mumbling incoherently for five minutes about a Sharpie pen in the middle of last week’s cabinet meeting? Could anyone watch that pitiful display and deny the man is fading into senility, and maybe not so gracefully? To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the last best hope for America may be to invoke the 25th Amendment (the president can be removed from office if he is unable to do his job). It’s hard to believe that even the groveling sycophants who compose his cabinet (the people charged with invoking the amendment) can’t see that he is unfit for office, but Lord knows they’ve disappointed this humble spirit before.