READING TIME: 5 Minutes
SUMMARY: Pardon me, sir, your incompetence is showing. Trump’s narcissism has crippled him in the face of the Netanyahu-Trump Illegal War. He had one tool, bullying, and it is not working with regard to the war. Trump’s statements, threats, and actions of the last week are linked back to the narcissistic need that they fulfill and their utter ineffectiveness is explained.
KEY WORDS: Incompetence, Trump, Netanyahu, Illegal War, Iran, Gulf States, Minesweepers, Strait of Hormuz, Narcissism, the South Pas Gas Fields
COMMENTS: How is Trump failing us in this time of war and economic turmoil? What are some of his most cringe worthy moments since launching this illegal war?
Trump really has put the Stupid in El Gran Jefe Estupido this week. All of his ramblings on the Netanyahu-Trump Illegal War have exposed his weaknesses as a leader and left him flailing on the world stage. Reality is finally sinking its teeth into his flabby hairless white ass as he learns some hard lessons. His wornout rusty tool, bullying, just isn’t fixing Iran, our allies, or the price of oil. Iran and our allies are playing toddler to the Impotent Daddy and just saying no. Unlike his wives, children, Republicans, and cable news hosts, oil prices can’t be gaslit. Let’s see how badly Trump is failing:
Bluff and Bluster Falling Flat
The latest incident deflates his pudgy facade. In a social media screed — What’s the old political rule of thumb? If you’re screening, your losing? — he made several outlandish claims about Israel’s attack on the South Pas gas fields that only make him sound weak and out of touch:
The US Knows Nothing…
Trump claimed that “the United States knew nothing about this particular attack.” Later reporting claims that Israel coordinated the attacks with the US.
This sounds weak because either Trump isn’t in the loop, he’s lying, or Israel really is a wildcard that the US either cannot or will not control. It makes it sound like Israel is in directing the entire war: its timing, its targets, its tempo, its escalation.
This is where two competing narcissistic urges work against each other, leaving Trump to take the lesser of two evils: First, he has to be perfect, so you’d think he’d claim that this was a good thing, that he directed Israel to do it, and it will bring about the end of the war faster. The other urge is to be blameless for all errors. His “I don’t know anything about it” is his go-to excuse. If he was never told about it, he can’t be responsible and he can blame others for not keeping him informed. Nevermind, that it makes him sound out-of-touch with his administration. Obviously, Trump craves being blameless over being in control.
Massively Blow Up
Trump’s wording is consistently awkward and juvenile. After Iran retaliated by attacking Qatari gas fields, he threatened them with, “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
Massively blow up. Hunh. Really? Did Ike ever talk about massively blowing up any of Nazi Germany’s fortifications or stores? Did LBJ or Nixon talk about massively blowing up the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Who talks like that other than my sixth grade boys as they draw tanks, dive bombers, and soldiers on their notebook paper?
An amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before. Haven’t we heard this one before? Didn’t he threaten Iran with massive retaliation several times for continuing their nuclear enrichment program after he tore up Obama’s agreement with them? Doesn’t Pistol Pete claim that each and every day will have the greatest number of strikes and be the most significant of the war?
Granted, the bombardment of Iran has been massive, the targeting thorough, and the damage significant, but make the same threat too many times and it starts to ring a little hollow.
Neither Israel nor Iran is afraid of escalating the war. The more Trump shakes his little fists and stomps his wee boots and threatens Iran in order to make the stop, the weaker and more unimportant he is.
Nobody, Nobody, No, No, No. No, the Greatest Experts, Nobody
One of the chief criticisms of Trump and his war effort was their lack of preparedness. They hadn’t topped up the nation’s oil reserves. They had no plans for evacuating citizens and diplomats. They were unprepared to defend our bases in the Gulf States.
Trump has repeatedly said that no one had predicted any of these dire outcomes. About the attacks on the Gulf States, “Nobody, nobody, no, no, no. No, the greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit – they were – I wouldn’t say friendly countries, they were like neutral. They lived with them for years.”
Who could possibly believe this lie? It’s not even the Big Lie of Hitler’s Propaganda Playbook because the audience is wrong. MAGA might could believe that Trump was ill served by his military commanders, but none of our allies will. No other government will believe it no matter how many times he repeats it. Making such false claims my insulate him from criticism from his MAGA base, but they only make him look weak, confused, unsure, and poorly informed to our allies, friends, enemies, and rivals.
Now that tankers are burning in the Strait of Hormuz, the administration is taking criticism for underestimating the likelihood and impact of Iran closing the strait. They claim to have planned for this contingency with Pistol Pete telling reporters, “Of course, for decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,.. This is always what they do hold the Strait hostage. CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report.”
The thing that puts the lie to the claims is having removed our minesweepers from the Bahrain in January 2026. Admittedly, our minesweeper fleet is old and due to be replaced, but they had certain advantages over their replacement craft. Mostly, they were made of fiberglass so they wouldn’t trigger mines while clearing them. The Littoral landing craft are aluminum and cant operate in mine infested waters. Oops.
Great planning guys.
It makes our mighty military look unprepared and poorly commanded because it is.
A Coalition of the Unwitting
Trump is frustrated because our allies won’t lend minesweepers and destroyers to help clear the Straits of Hormuz and escort tankers through it. Of course, it would’ve helped had he thought of this BEFORE launching the war and NEGOTIATED assistance with allies then so that commitments and plans were in place and ready to go.
Only a narcissist would be confused by their reluctance to participate in an illegal war. We have violated one of the fundamental rules of the modern international world order: You do not attack a country without provocation. There was no imminent threat from Iran to justify our attack. Consequently, no one wants to join such an effort.
Otherwise, we threatened the very existence of NATO by making a clumsy attempt to take Greenland from Denmark, have battered their economies for a year with wildly unpredictable tariffs, and Trump has personally insulted individual leaders and countries since assuming office. Gee, narcissist, why doesn’t anyone want to come help you now? Could it be that your behavior has been a bit off-putting?
Holding the World Hostage to his Incompetence
Trump’s only card here is to hold the world hostage to his incompetence. In essence, he’s saying, either you help me out of the mess I have made and am worsening, or it’ll wreak your economies. When that didn’t work, he threatens to abandon the entire project and leave the rest of the world to pick up the pieces by falsely maintaining our energy needs arent tied to the rest of the world’s.
The problem that Trump has created for the world is that there is no good solution to the problem of the Netanyahu-Trump Illegal War. The best case scenario is to end the war immediately. Even if it were possible, the damage to the the Middle East’s energy infrastructure is done. It will take months and years to repair. However, ending the war any time soon is not possible. Even if Trump chooses to stop, Iran and Israel are likely to carry on with attacks continuing long after conventional hostilities have ended.
Essentially, the conflict has become a war of attrition. Can we destroy enough of Iran to make them cry uncle before the pain from the economic crisis the war has created becomes great enough to get the US to stop. The longer the war carries on, the worse the damage is to the world’s economy, the longer it will take to recover from it.
Reality may have bitten Trump in his ass, but it is the rest of us that will pay for it.
Image Attribution
The image was found on the NARA & DVIDS Public Domain Archive and holds a Creative Commons license.
The Psy of Life 
What does winning look like to the Iranians? It looks like the fall of both Trump and Netanyahu. Of the two, Trump is the more vulnerable politically, but if the US calls it quits, it is safe to predict that Trump will try to blame the whole mess on Israel, which his antisemitic base will eat up.
The reporting on who depends on LPG from Qatar is long, essentially the entire “Third World”, several billion people. What pressure can those governments apply to the US, and Israel, and Iran to stop the madness?
Then, there’s the question: If Trump were to be impeached and removed, would his replacement be that much more competent?
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Howdy Bob!
Vance will be incompetent, possibly as incompetent as Trump, perhaps more, but also, differently.
I think winning for the Iranians looks like having the government intact in three months. Everything that has been destroyed can and will be rebuilt, including their nuclear capabilities. You can’t eradicate the knowledge of how to make nuclear weapons from the world, and NK, Russia, and China are happy to prop Iran up, including their nuclear capabilities.
The only question for them is who will be running the government or rather which organization will be.
Europe is very alarmed now. The instability that Trump is sowing across the world is going to require Europe to step in to calm the waters and counter-balance China. Will Trump respond to pressure from the rest of the world? Will the world be bold enough to place real pressure on the US?
Both the economy and the climate are extremely fragile right now, so will anyone step up to remove or change Trump? How urgent is it becoming?
Huzzah!
Jack
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