The Trump Presidency Is Going Great

The Trump administration’s top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, has resigned, because apparently the War on Terror was no match for the War on Basic Competence happening inside this White House. NPR’s Steve Inskeep is talking to Kent’s co-author Marty Skovlund, presumably to answer the burning question: what finally broke him—policy disagreements, ethical lines, or just too many meetings where the president asked if ISIS could be solved with a tweet and a golf summit?

Yet again, the person in charge of keeping Americans safe from terrorists has decided that staying in Trump’s national security apparatus is somehow less safe than leaving it. At this point, the counterterrorism portfolio looks like a revolving door with a security clearance. But sure, sleep well, America—your terrorist threat matrix is being updated by whoever hasn’t resigned, been sidelined, or rage-quit on live TV this week.

President Donald Trump hopped on Truth Social to let the world know that while Iran’s national soccer team is technically "welcome" at the 2026 World Cup in the U.S., he "really doesn’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety." You know, just the president of the United States casually implying he can’t vouch for whether visiting athletes might get killed if they show up. Very normal, extremely reassuring, top-tier tourism slogan material.

Iran’s sports minister Ahmad Donyamali had already said Iran won’t participate because the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top officials. So Iran is boycotting on account of that whole "you assassinated our leadership" thing, while Trump responds by basically saying, yeah, and also, can’t promise your players won’t get whacked if they come either. The global norm since Munich 1972 has been that athletes are sacrosanct; Trump’s norm is that they’re just another prop in his forever grievance theater.

For bonus whiplash, this tough-guy warning comes the same week Trump offered asylum to Iran’s women’s team if Australia wouldn’t take them — a split-screen where he plays savior for women athletes while hinting the men’s team might not survive a trip to Los Angeles and Seattle. Diplomatic "sportswashing" used to mean regimes using games to look better; under Trump, it’s the U.S. using the World Cup to advertise that even athlete safety is now a negotiable part of his foreign policy cosplay.

American law enforcement just reenacted every neocon fever dream: an undercover DEA agent pretended to be an Iranian general in charge of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, and a Japanese "Yakuza boss" – who may actually just be a garden-variety conman – tried to sell him heroin, meth, rocket launchers, and, oh right, weapons-grade plutonium. Because when you picture nuclear proliferation, you obviously think: Myanmar rebels, Golden Triangle drug routes, and a guy who calls uranium and meth "cake and ice cream" like he’s running a cursed Baskin-Robbins.

The US calls this a "resounding success" in nuclear security, which is one way to describe discovering that insurgent groups in Myanmar are apparently mining uranium while porous borders, weak customs, and nonexistent radiation detection let nuclear material wander around the planet like it’s backpacking through Europe. Experts are now stuck asking the fun question: if this random drug-smuggling side-hustler had weapons-grade plutonium samples, where did they actually come from, and how much more is out there? The official answer so far is: ¯\(ツ)/¯, but with more footnotes.

Meanwhile, the DEA’s sting relied on the classic Washington script: pretend Iran is buying nukes, then point to Iran to justify endless war talk about Iran’s nuclear program… while the real problem is unsecured material leaking from everywhere else. So yes, we’re bombing and sanctioning one country over a program it denies, while weapons-grade plutonium is apparently available via insurgent WhatsApp in Myanmar. Strong work, global nuclear order.

The Middle East is erupting, a U.S. submarine has just torpedoed an Iranian warship, and thousands of Americans are now stranded trying to get out. So naturally, the Trump administration is laser-focused on the most urgent national priority: endorsing someone in a nasty Texas Senate primary. Foreign policy? Consular protection? Evacuation planning? Please, there are donors to impress and cable hits to book.

While Americans scramble for flights and wonder if their government remembers they exist, the war footing ramps up and the White House treats them like inconvenient background extras in Trump’s latest ratings stunt. The State Department’s message appears to be: good luck, stay safe, and don’t forget to vote for whoever Dear Leader blesses in Texas. It’s a perfect snapshot of Trump-era national security: play battleship with Iran on live TV, then shrug when actual Americans get caught in the middle.

Rule of law, international norms, and basic duty of care to citizens are all gently placed in the shredder while the administration chases its next domestic political “win.” The only real evacuation plan seems to be evacuating responsibility.