He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind—when he feels new whims and new impulses—he simply lies about whatever he said or did before.
Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done
Allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing.
Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places.
And the first six days of the war alone cost the US $11.3bn, the Pentagon briefed members of Congress – though it wasn’t clear if those numbers included the cost of the buildup or the US missile defenses as well. The ultimate toll of Iran’s closure of the strait of Hormuz on the world economy remains to be seen.
Tens of thousands of US citizens were stranded in the region as the state department hurriedly slapped together a taskforce to evacuate them.
Now it has focused on a new goal–that of opening the strait of Hormuz, whose closure has sent prices for oil to more than $100 a barrel and even prompted the Trump administration to halt sanctions on Russian oil, reversing its policy in a different war.
“Each of these goals would have required a different military strategy,” said Michael Singh, managing director of the Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the national security council under George W Bush.