Trump Broke It but Wants Europe to Fix It

Trump Broke It but Wants Europe to Fix It

Iran totally controls which tankers can pass through the Strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump, who has never been able to articulate a consistent reason why US forces have attacked Iran, claims repeatedly that all US goals have been met (and we’re leaving soon), that liberating the Strait of Hormuz is not our fight (even though it is closed primarily in response to the Trump-initiated WAR on Iran, and opening the Strait was an announced goal), that the 970 pounds of Iran’s fissionable material is no longer a threat (because it is buried under tons of rubble), and that if Europe wants the Strait open, it must send military forces to “liberate” that passage. With relatively cheap, low-tech drones and mines, neither the United States nor Israel has achieved the slightest success in reopening that waterway. Insurance companies covering international shipping still will not cover losses incurred by shipping companies who attempt to pass through the Strait without Iran’s approval.

Here are the main catches: first, contrary to Trump’s beliefs, over 95% of the oil and gas passing through the Strait has always been directed at Asia and not Europe. We’re not talking about the Suez Canal! Second, the price of oil and gas in the United States will always be impacted by any global disruption in those products, notwithstanding our ability to produce those fossil fuels as one of the largest suppliers on Earth. As Trump berates our European allies for not joining the US in its assault on Iran and threatens to pull out of NATO, he seems to forget that NATO has always been a defensive pact and not one that can force NATO members to join a raw attack on another nation. That most Americans disagree with Trump’s WAR should be an indicator that NATO allies are in alignment with the predominant US sentiment… and it is Trump who is the odd man out.

If the US pulls out of the region, letting it mire in damage and firm Iranian control of the Strait, oil prices are unlikely to return to pre-WAR status anytime soon. Trump speaks with the certainty that his dialog with Iranian leaders is working, that they are ready to make serious concessions, despite a clear contradicting take from the Iranians in power, who claim no such conversations. Trump also tells us that there has been a regime change (several times over) in Iran, which is categorically false. The underlying theocracy is intact, the layered leadership has replaced all major Iranian leaders who have been killed, the IRGC still dominates the entire country, there is no popular uprising in this brutally repressive nation, and despite the incessant hammering of critical Iranian infrastructure by US and Israeli forces, Trump will never get his demanded “unconditional surrender,” no matter what he claims.

European leaders are not letting American voters off the hook. They remind us that Trump’s outrageous and autocratic proclivities were well established in his first term, his campaign for his second term was even less ambiguous, and still America voters put him back into the presidency. There is a sweeping change of attitude among NATO allies, that if Trump pulls out of that defensive organization, perhaps the world just might be better off. I can actually envision traditional allies breaking diplomatic relations with the United States, further reinforcing the isolation Trump seems to embrace, sending a message that the world cannot trust a bully who cannot keep his word, that the US financial stranglehold over international trade must end, that TACO tariffs are no longer acceptable.

Even if Trump were unable to sustain Trumpian authority past the 2028 presidential election, or even if a powerful Democrat were to retake the White House, even if both Houses of Congress were to turn blue, the world can no longer assume that the US will not later elect another malignant autocrat to undermine any return to a true democracy. We are politically damaged goods with almost no way to convince the world that we aren’t really that way.

The great beneficiary of Trump’s misplaced WAR is the same nation that invaded and proceeded to decimate and attempt to annex Ukraine (so far unsuccessfully): Putin’s Russia. With oil prices staggeringly high, and with Trump’s release of sanctions against Russia, Trump has actually become Putin’s champion; Russia is making a fortune from its latest oil exports, and Trump is effectively helping Russia finance the war in Ukraine, while the same time using up America’s most powerful stash of sophisticated weapons, draining our treasury and showing the world how militarily vulnerable the US truly is. China is also cheering as well as we cannot truly claim victory.

Trump’s approval levels have never been this low. His TACO responses on this WAR, immigration and the economy, may not have alienated his MAGA cult loyalists, but he has lost his grip on the independent voters who backed him… and there is scant likelihood that they will return to back him and his policies.

And his feeble explanation in his April 1st speech failed at every level. 19 minutes of meaningless babble. Trump said we have met all of our military goals (what exactly were they, and why are we still striking targets?), that even though we never threatened regime change (we did), we effected eliminating hardliners at the top who were replaced with more reasonable leaders (except the replacements are vastly tougher and more intransigent than those they replaced), a desperate Iran is seeking a ceasefire (denied by Iran), we are almost finished (but no timeline was announced), the Strait of Hormuz is not our problem (it’s no more Europe’s problem than ours, but global oil prices have soared through the roof everywhere), we may withdraw from NATO (like we are a good partner now?), and unless the Strait were immediately open, we would bomb Iran into the “stone age.”

Prior to this failed speech, the UK and Australian PMs made it clear that they considered this WAR to be Trump’s unilateral decision (with Netanyahu’s push), and Spain, Italy and France declared that they would deny US military aircraft destined for Iran the right to use their airspace, reminding Trump that NATO is a defensive, not an offensive, pact. Trump pledged that we would keep satellite surveillance over the rubble where the enriched uranium seems to be lodged and attack if Iran attempted to extract it. But weren’t we already doing that? The stock markets crashed, oil prices soared further, sending a clear message to Trump that he was in this alone, increasingly viewed as a global loser. A few regional Arab nations resurrected their traditional antipathy against Iran, but their request to continue the WAR was a small ripple on a very large pond. And Iran pledged even more powerful retaliatory strikes, and suggested that the United States will have no say in the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the more extreme Trump’s policies these days, the lower his polling and the more he is being reversed by our judicial system, proving that Donald John Trump is America’s greatest LOSER president presiding over a toxic legacy.