SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Why Trump’s Wartime Elvis Pilgrimage Should Get Every American Shook Up

The president cancels a trip to China...and visits Graceland.

Opinion

Wise men say, only fools rush in...

By all accounts, Donald Trump had all the intelligence he needed to make a wise decision about whether or not to invade Iran.

If his anti-war National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, is to be believed, she advised him of the dangers. His Vice President, JD Vance, urged caution, and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had concerns.

But he rushed in anyway.

Despite his protestations, all is not going well. Gas prices are rising, the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, and people keep dying.

The president canceled this month’s planned trip to China for five or six weeks to focus on his war. It was Trump who decided Iran presented an “imminent threat” and nobody else. At least, that’s what his Cabinet keeps telling us.

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A superpower summit with China is of crucial importance to the world in a time of great turmoil, much of it created by Trump.

Instead, he spends the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, playing a round of golf, and starts the week paying tribute to his troops in ... Memphis.

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Actually, the tributes were almost all for the commander in chief, as Trump and Hegseth bragged about National Guard troops keeping the peace in an American city.

And then the president took a tourist tour of Graceland.

Surely this is a time when America is craving leadership.

Whether or not you believe in Trump’s war, our servicemen and women are putting their lives on the line every day. Thirteen have already paid the ultimate sacrifice, more than 200 have been wounded, in addition to the countless innocent civilians who have found themselves in the crosshairs of the conflict.

And Trump idles away Monday evening at the second tackiest home in America, arguing whether or not he could have taken Elvis in a fight after being told the singer was a black belt in karate. (One historic fact about Elvis he didn’t address was that the king was drafted at the peak of his fame; no bone spurs for him.)

Accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president signed an Elvis guitar. He said what a big fan he is (although he couldn’t think of his favorite song), and he marveled over the king’s gold-covered Social Security card.

Elvis was surely one of the greatest performers in history, but few credited him with taste.

Jack Soden, the CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises, and Joel Weinshanker, from Graceland management, welcomed Trump into the house where Elvis died on August 16, 1977.

The upstairs of the home—where the singer died on the toilet—is closed to the public at the request of his late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.

Of course, wartime leaders are not expected to carry the fight to the enemy. But serious times require serious leaders.

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Attending the roundtable in Memphis on Monday to hear Hegseth, Bondi, and a parade of sycophants tell him what a genius he was, Trump looked exhausted.

He could barely keep his eyes open. After all, he was only born eleven years after Elvis, and the king of rock and roll has been dead for nearly half a century.

At 79, the president would be better served by conserving his energy to get his country out of the mess it is in.

We are all looking to him now.

Perhaps a little more action would help.

And A Little Less Conversation.

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David GardnerChief National Correspondent

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