The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

Out on the South Lawn, where U.S. foreign policy goes to die, Donald Trump announced that the FlyDubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to crash a plane into Israel is linked to Iran, “based on what I’m hearing.” No evidence, no intel, not even a half-hearted “we’re still gathering facts,” just pure presidential gut-feel geopolitics. Even Benjamin Netanyahu — a man not exactly known for restraint — is on TV saying it’s “too early to say” if Iran was involved and that it looks more like a suicide attempt. When Netanyahu is the one tapping the brakes, you’ve driven the clown car straight through the guardrail.

Asked if the co-pilot was placed there by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or radicalized some other way, Trump shrugs it into existence: “Could’ve been, yeah.” Then comes the tough-guy closer: if Iran’s behind it, the U.S. will retaliate and they’ll be hit “very hard,” as if launching a regional war is just another episode of his reality show. Meanwhile, the co-pilot hasn’t even been publicly identified, is being interrogated in Saudi Arabia, and Omani officials are still sorting out basic facts like nationality. But sure, why wait for evidence when you can freelance nuclear-adjacent threats off a Fox chyron and a hunch?

This is how you get from “something bad happened on a plane” to “the president is ad-libbing casus belli into a TV gaggle.” Intelligence agencies? Ongoing investigations? Diplomatic coordination? All downgraded in favor of Trump’s favorite source: whatever he’s “hearing” from the same ecosystem that once insisted windmills cause cancer. Sleep tight, the world’s largest military is being steered by a guy live-testing conspiracy theories on camera.

Twenty-five years after 9/11, Hillary Clinton is out here warning that terrorism is still a thing, while the Trump administration is busy measuring drapes for a White House ballroom like it’s hosting the Met Gala for Authoritarians. Clinton points out that there are still thousands of extremists who would love to hurt the U.S., but the government’s attention is currently focused on chandeliers, not, say, the intelligence coming out of Afghanistan.

The former secretary of state notes that Trump and his Musk-branded Department of Government Efficiency have solved the problem of intelligence failures by firing the people who do the intelligence. Thousands of jobs slashed across the federal government, including at the CIA and State Department, have left the U.S. without “eyes and ears” in key regions, especially in West Africa where extremism is growing. It’s a bold national security doctrine: if you don’t know about the threats, you can’t be blamed for missing them. Mission accomplished.

Clinton says there are still dedicated people at FBI and the intel agencies trying to hold this circus together, but they lack resources and anything resembling mission focus. The White House, asked for comment, punted to DHS, which then ghosted NBC like a contractor waiting on Trump to pay an invoice. Meanwhile, the country commemorates 9/11 by learning that the same government that once downplayed toxic air at Ground Zero is now downplaying the need for basic counterterrorism staffing. We’ve gone from "never forget" to "did we really need all those analysts anyway?" in just 25 short years.

The Guardian is once again asking the timeless question: is Donald Trump a Russian asset, or does he just act like one for free? Luke Harding walks through the greatest mystery that’s somehow also the most obvious plotline in geopolitics: the US president who rolls out a red carpet for Vladimir Putin in Alaska, lets him speak first at their presser, and looks like a nervous contestant waiting for approval from the game show host who has his secrets.

The menu of explanations is a greatest hits of modern republicanism: an ideological crush on Putin’s "anti-woke" authoritarian cosplay, strongman envy (Fiona Hill’s phrase for Trump’s desire to make money and crush opponents with zero consequences), and the evergreen possibility of kompromat. Decades of intelligence attention, a 1987 Moscow trip arranged by the Soviets, the 2013 Ritz-Carlton stay with rumored FSB cameras, and a Senate report politely screaming "there are tapes" all hang over a president who keeps acting like the guy who knows his blackmailer’s Wi-Fi password by heart.

The result is a United States led by someone who publicly trashes European democratic leaders while fawning over an ex-KGB autocrat whose security services bug hotel rooms like it’s a national sport. Whether Trump is a literal asset or just spiritually outsourced, the consequences are the same: US foreign policy that looks less like "America First" and more like "Kremlin, what would you like on the menu today?"

The U.S. has launched strikes on targets in Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran says it’s now retaliating, which is a fun way of saying: welcome to the part of the Trump presidency where we speedrun the Authorization for Use of Military Force like it’s a 2001 nostalgia project. Officially, this is all very "targeted" and "proportionate"; unofficially, it’s the geopolitical equivalent of two arsonists arguing over who lit the match while the oil shipping lanes burn in the background.

This latest round comes after weeks of Trump-world saber-rattling: new sanctions with action-movie names like "Operation Economic Outcast," public chest-thumping about "no talks" with Iran, and breathless coverage of alleged Iranian threats against Barron Trump—because nothing helps de-escalate a crisis like turning it into a family reality show subplot. Congress, naturally, is mostly watching from the sidelines, occasionally clearing its throat about war powers while the White House treats the Strait of Hormuz like a proving ground for Bessent’s foreign policy LARP.

What we’re left with is a president lobbing missiles at a nuclear-threshold adversary in one of the world’s most sensitive chokepoints, under a legal theory old enough to rent a car, while insisting this is all just "pressure" and totally not edging toward a broader conflict. The administration keeps calling these strikes a sign of "strength"; everyone else calls it what it looks like: a barely supervised escalation spiral run by a man whose main strategic doctrine is whatever got the loudest applause at last night’s rally.