To provide some context: I have no idea why Trump's guys flew some bombers over the Middle East earlier today. But the mission is over, and "deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies" is what U.S. administrations do when they don't really have anything else. /1
This is mostly a Cold War hangover, where "sending up some nuclear-armed bombers" had actual meaning. Since the B-52 is no longer part of the nuclear bombing mission, it's a showy way to say "We see you." It's not unique to Trump. But it does raise some questions. /2
Mostly, the question of who thought this was needed. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in DoD did this to placate President Angry Pants so that he could feel like he ordered something. Another question is whether something happened off the radar that the US didn't like. /3
But since there's nothing else going on, I'm going to assume (for now) that this was just the usual "send the bombers for a flyover because we don't really know what else to do and it looks authoritative" thing. We did it, they saw it, it's done, and Trump went and golfed. /4x
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