Applebaum: Trump clearly did not expect the Iran war to last this long. He seems to have imagined it would be easy.
If people in the room told him otherwise, he ignored them. He knows very little about Iran and even seemed surprised by Hormuz and Iranian strikes. 1/
Applebaum: People around the world now read news from Washington by first asking whether it is real.
Trump helped create that post-reality world by nurturing conspiracy theories and undermining trust in media. That is a classic authoritarian tactic. 2/
Applebaum: This is a war Trump does not want to think about.
He keeps looking for somebody else to blame and even decided to blame Europeans, who did not start the war, were not consulted about it, and have very little ability to end it. 3/
Applebaum: Trump seems to imagine Iran as a one-issue problem the US can solve by itself. He does not think strategically.
He does not think in second-, third-, or fourth-order consequences: jet fuel, airline prices, fertilizer markets, fuel shortages elsewhere. 4/
Applebaum: Europeans are beginning to worry that the US leadership has no idea what it is doing and is leading everyone toward global recession without seeming to care.
Trump rationalizes Russian and Chinese support for Iran, but lashes out at allies like Spain. 5X
Source:
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