It is well known that Donald Trump covets titles, awards and honors. After all, you do not acquire the FIFA Peace Prize, the first and only trophy for being the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal,” the Republican Party’s inaugural “America First Award” and someone else’s Nobel Peace Prize in the same year by mere good fortune.
But some would argue these are fake awards. That may be so. But few would deny that there is a real distinction that Trump has in just the past few days Trump has demonstrated he richly deserves.
He is undoubtedly the most powerful idiot in the history of the world.
Both his idiocy and his power are unparalleled. On the latter point, his position as president and commander-in-chief of the most dominant, potent nation confirms that no idiot since the beginning of time has ever been in a position to do so much damage to so many people as a consequence of his idiocy.
On the prior point, just look at the record. The misbegotten, ill-considered, going-from-bad-freaking-worse every damn day War with Iran illustrates Trump’s manifold mental deficiencies with shocking clarity—and, unfortunately for all of us, the damage he is doing seems certain to touch more lives in more egregious ways going forward than it already has.
Which is saying something since the unnecessary, illegal war has already caused the loss of over 3,000 lives in Iran, more than 1,000 in Lebanon, the dislocation of over 1 million people in the latter country, injuries and suffering for countless thousands, death to 13 members of the U.S. military, tens of billions of dollars of needless expense, the destabilization of the Middle East, the weakening of the NATO alliance, the undermining of our ability to support key allies like Ukraine, a massive distraction from the significant domestic problems faced here in the U.S. and untold damage to the standing of the United States in the world.
And all that without any strategic benefit to the U.S. whatsoever.
Indeed, despite the high cost, the U.S. has been able to achieve absolutely none of its objectives in Iran—a hardline regime remains in place, Iran retains all of its enriched uranium, it still has massive stocks of missiles and drones and, with the help of China and others is replenishing them, and its regional proxies are now more rather than less active.
Further, Iran has seized important leverage over the global economy with its decision to stop traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
It has been a fiasco.
But there have been other military fiascos in world history. There have even been other fiascos in recent history unleashed by dimwitted presidents. See the Iraq War.
But we are in a different kind of territory here. During the Iraq War the US planned, George W. Bush sought expert advice, we sought to win global and domestic support for the undertaking.
Furthermore, when it was clear our strategy was not working, Bush embraced the idea of changing approach (remember “the surge?”) It was still one of the greatest disasters in the history of U.S. foreign policy.
But the question is: Was it anywhere nearly as idiotic as this war in which the president resolutely rejected warnings he received, ignored history, turned away all reasonable advice, was blind to his own shortcomings and that of his inept, sycophantic team?
No. Here we are dealing not just with mistakes. We are dealing with howlers, impossibly dumb actions followed by even stupider and more destructive steps that only make matters worse.
Entering the war was idiotic. Seeking to change the regime with air power alone was idiotic. Not having a clear rationale or even a rational one was idiotic. Doing it without global support was idiotic. Doing it by circumventing the law in the US was idiotic. Leaving the management of the military to an idiot like Pete Hegseth was double idiotic.
And from there, in just the past few days, matters got worse.
First, Trump threatened to destroy Iranian civilization. He presented himself as a genocidal maniac. In so doing he entered a small club of the world’s very worst people. But, ask yourself, among the members of that club—Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.—who was more of an idiot than Trump?
Did any of them follow their threats by reversing course hours later behind the transparent ruse of a ceasefire that featured neither side being able to agree to what they had agreed upon?
Did they then do anything like saying they accepted their adversary’s ten point plan which would have amounted to something akin to unconditional surrender to the Iranians on every key point Trump argued had led us to go to war.
Did they vacillate as Trump has done, toying with nutty ideas like splitting tolls in the Strait of Hormuz with the Iranians?
What malevolent world leader in the past would have sent a team of five Americans to negotiate with 60 expert Iranians without having any reasonable basis for an agreement hashed out?
Who would have sent complete incompetents like J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to represent the United States when none of them understood the core issues involved, were accompanied by experts who understood those issues, or even had much of a track record in negotiations of this sort. (Vance had no track record. Witkoff’s record was limited to failures in Ukraine and a troubled and troubling non-ceasefire ceasefire in Gaza.
Kushner, despite not being a U.S. government official and having serious conflicts of interest, may have actually had more regional success than the other two with his work on the Abraham Accords and let’s be honest, he had zero business being in the room or playing a lead role in these negotiations.)
The whole negotiation was a sham to begin with and despite the fact that that was clear to all, there was no clear plan for what to do after it failed as it inevitably did. After just trying for a day, Vance and company headed home, failures all. And where was Trump? Well, where would an idiot be? He was at a UFC match in Miami…accompanied by his Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio who you would have thought might have wanted to be a little closer to the action of the negotiations.
It is hard to imagine a more idiotic place for a president and his top national security advisor to be at a moment of national crisis. But, idiots will idiot. That should be clear by now.
Then, on Sunday morning, in the wake of the diplomatic charade in Pakistan, Trump announced that the next move for the U.S. would be to blockade Iran. An act of war, a blockade of a country like Iran is a major complex deal, in no respect like the one the US had imposed on Venezuela briefly months earlier.
But what makes the move especially idiotic is that the blockade was a response to Iran’s decision to block and control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. In other words, Trump, with the strategic acumen of a four-year-old in a fight on a pre-school playground, had the most powerful nation on earth stomping its foot and saying, “Oh yeah, well, I’m going to blockade your blockade with a double secret super blockade.”
Never mind that such a blockade will only make the global energy crisis worse…and likely for a long time to come. Never mind that blockading the strait also blockades other nations with ports on the Persian Gulf, including many U.S. allies. Never mind that Iran is a large country that has borders with seven other nations. Never mind that this action was collective punishment for Iran’s civilians and thus illegal under international law. Never mind that knock-on effects for the world economy.
Never mind that many of the ships going through the strait are those of our allies who will now see us as a double impediment to their economic needs. Never mind that such a blockade will be hugely costly and difficult. Never mind that it will make it easier still for Iran to blame the world crisis on the U.S. Never mind that it looks impotent and stupid. Never mind that the first time a Chinese flagged ship wants to challenge the blockade will cause a confrontation with potentially the gravest of consequences. (And never mind that the Chinese, Russians and others will conduct a major airlift to support Iran and diminish the impact of the blockade.)
Never mind all those things because only a mentally competent president would take them into consideration and the president of the United States is not that. Indeed, while many will debate whether his principle mental defect is due to a deficiency or a disorder, it is pretty clear that the consequences are grim in both cases.
But Trump wants the distinction. Trump wants to leave no doubt. That can be the only explanation for him deciding to tell a Fox News reporter on Sunday that in the midst of all this he was giving serious consideration to the idea of re-naming the body of water known alternatively as the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf as “the Gulf of Trump.”
Which is surpassingly foolish. Because, as one keen-eyed observer suggested to me on social media this morning, prior events have already conclusively demonstrated that the name is taken. The real Gulf of Trump is “that giant empty space between” our president’s ears.
