Donald Trump has the American public, the media and the world wrapped around his finger. He yanks that string at will. We’re all tugged in kind, whiplashed by the wild ride and drive-by chaos. We’re often yanked so much and so quickly that we don’t even recall where he had us passengers mere weeks ago.
Here are recent cases in point:
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” President Trump promised on his Truth Social account at 8:03 a.m. Easter Sunday morning. “There will be nothing like it!!!” He fumed at the Iranians: “Open the (expletive) Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!” Trump didn’t abbreviate the F-word. He signed off: “Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Two mornings later, Trump issued one of the most incendiary threats in the history of the presidency.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump threatened 93 million Iranians. He averred, “I don’t want that to happen,” before assuring, “but it probably will.”
This prompted — actually, it commanded — Pope Leo to condemn “this threat against the entire people of Iran” as “truly unacceptable.”
That all exploded a few weeks ago. And what has happened with Trump and Iran since? Well, nothing that Trump actually threatened, praise God. In fact, things have quieted considerably, even without the prospects of an Iranian “deal” that he sought. A colleague of mine described it as a presidential “drive-by shooting.”
That characterization may or may not be fair, but it all begs a crucial question, namely: What’s going on?
What strikes me about the Iran fiasco is that it isn’t an isolated phenomenon in this vastly different second presidential term of Donald Trump. In his first 12 months, Trump issued dire, bellicose threats to Greenland, Venezuela and more. I’ll refer readers to my column “Trump vs. the Western Hemisphere” (Jan. 15, TribLive), where I quoted wild Trump statements toward allies, from making Canada a 51st state to shocking claims on Greenland. He forcibly removed Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, a corrupt dictator who everyone was happy to see go. But then came Trump’s startling claim on Venezuela: “We are going to run the country.” Looking elsewhere in the hemisphere, he issued stern warnings to Cuba’s commie thugs and to the Colombian president to “watch his ass.”
And what became of all this?
Well, Canada is not our 51st state. That issue is gone. Greenland is not an American territory. We’re not even talking about Greenland anymore. We’re not running Venezuela. The president of Colombia hasn’t been touched.
And, returning to the Iranians, the United States never blew up their bridges and power plants or ended their entire civilization never to be brought back again. So, what did all those frightening threats bring us, the Iranians and the world? Stress and chaos.
The Trump threats are so wild, continuous and yet fleeting that it’s hard to remember the one before the current, or the threat two or three threats ago. And in the meantime, we’re yanked along his wild ride, strapped into the passenger seat for every blow of the horn, bracing for the airbag. This drive-by chaos is outrageous.
It’s so outrageous that one is tempted to not take any of it — nor the American president — seriously. But alas, how can we not?