It’s known that President Trump operates in a simple us v. them world, friends and enemies. Since he first attacked Iran last February he has referred to them as scum and has threatened to end their civilization.

Vilifying your enemies is as old as warfare itself, and God knows Trump is good at this. But managing conflict also means supporting your allies and that appears beyond Don’s reach. He’s criticized NATO and even Israel.

But the last few days have shown an even higher level of crazy. Yesterday Trump announced that we would halt joint military exercises with South Korea, arguing that they “insult” North Korea. Except that we sided with South Korea in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The war didn’t end with a surrender or peace treaty but a cease fire. Technically we’re still at war with North Korea.

Now let’s move on to the nation of Oman. They are on the Arabian peninsula, across the Straight of Oman from Iran. They are our ally and have been trying to mediate between the United States and Iran. But, again, Trump is angry with them and has threatened to bomb the shit out of them.

It appears Trump is frustrated with the lack of progress on the war. I get it, we all are. But turning on our allies only makes him look more unhinged and makes our world more dangerous.

Seriously, Don, seek help.

Virtually all wars begin with the promise that it will be quick and relatively painless.

The Civil War famously began with both sides expecting it would all be over in a few weeks or months. The Confederates didn’t believe that the Union States cared all that much about keeping states that wanted to leave and the Union states believed that their superiority in technology (railroad tracks, armaments) would force the Confederates into a quick surrender. It was only after 4 years and 600,000 deaths that the war ended.

In 2003, six weeks after our invasion of Iraq President George W. Bush proclaimed Mission Accomplished aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. By the time our last troops left Iraq in December of 2011 over 2,000 American troops were dead and we’ll never know how many Iraqi’s died.

Enter President Trump in Iran. Last month I wrote about how he promised a quick war. Obviously that hasn’t happened but now we’re seeing new problems that anyone could have forseen.

We’re seeing reports that we’re running low on munitions including Patriot Missiles. Between missiles we’re using in Iran and missiles we’ve sold to Ukraine in their war against Russia, we’re using them up faster than we can produce them.

We’re also getting reports that sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are being strained. There’s an article about this that’s hard to read. The aircraft carrier was deployed in November of 2025 and was expected last until May of 2026. It’s tour has been extended with no end date.

Clearly deployments go longer than expected and these sailors knew what they were signing up for. But we’re also getting reports of shortages of food and other necessities to accompany the stress of a longer deployment.

When we send people into harm’s way we have an obligation to do all that we can to ensure their safety and to ensure they have what they need to complete the mission. Equally obviously our president is not doing this. As I said last month we entered this war with no justification and no path to its end. This needs to stop now.

President Trump likes to build things. Or at least he likes to admire what he’s built. Or things someone else built that he can claim credit for like Mar A Lago which was built in the 1920s.

His time in office has shown us that he has no ability to hire good people, or manage the economy, or win a war. Most people, when faced with the fact that they’re not up to the job, will retreat to something they know how to do.

Enter the White House ballroom. Last year Trump ordered the tear down of the East Wing of the White House to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom for entertaining. In an attempt to justify this he added an underground bomb shelter (even though there has been a bunker under the White House since 1942).

Not surprisingly there is a lawsuit claiming Trump doesn’t have the authority to do this. Now here comes the fun part: in a recent article the administration now claims that since construction has already begun, it’s too late to stop it.

In response, Judge Patricia Millett asked a hypothetical (as judges often do). She asked if Trump decided to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty on his own and started the job before telling anyone, the courts couldn’t stop him. The lawyer for the Department of Justice said he could.

Watch out Lady Liberty, you could be next.

So when you’re the CEO, who do you hire? Well, if you care about the company you hire people who can do the job. Unfortunately we’ve all had the experience of working for someone who hires his buddies, supporters, or those who pledge absolute loyalty. When it becomes clear that this new hire just can’t do the job, the whole company suffers. Enter President Trump.

From his first day in office he’s used his appointment powers to hire (at our expense) his cronies and he’s gotten rid of people who sought to do the job well even when they clashed with the president. Think Rex Tillerson, John Kelly and Mark Milley.

Perhaps more troubling is his tendency to put people in important jobs when they have no experience or expertise. Today Trump announced he’s appointing Bill Pulte to be the Director of National Intelligence. Bill currently heads the Federal Housing Finance Agency and apparently will keep his old job. Bill’s background is housing, philanthropy and persecuting Lisa Cook.

Bill will now lead an agency that was founded after the attacks of 9/11 to coordinate the intelligence we gain from several agencies (e.g. CIA, NSA, FBI and others). He will find himself surrounded by career public servants who are much more knowledgeable about these issues. But he’s shown his only concern is loyalty to Trump.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

During President Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign he announced that he will be “your retribution.” That is, at least, one campaign promise he’s kept. A few days ago we learned that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation against E. Jean Carroll.

In 2019 she accused Trump of raping her in 1995. Because of the statute of limitations she couldn’t file a criminal complaint but she did sue him in civil court and was awarded $83.3 million. The case is still under appeal.

The current investigation claims that she lied under oath when asked if she was getting help in paying her legal bills. She said she wasn’t but it was later found that she was getting some funding from American Future Republic, a nonprofit that gives aid to left wing causes. Trump’s lawyers complained but an appeals court ruled that “litigation funding was not relevant to the case at hand.” In other words this was matter between American Future Republic and her law firm, Hecker & Fink and had no bearing on the case.

So why is the Justice Department pursuing this case? Clearly they are doing this at Trump’s instruction. He is using them to warn people about what happens when people seek justice against him. I wrote a similar post in Trump’s obsession with James Comey.

Can someone please explain to Trump that the Justice Department works for the American people, not him?