Trump’s dumb luck
Iran lobbed a handful of missiles at a US air base in Qatar, which the US easily shot down. This was in retaliation for America’s unprovoked bombing of suspected nuclear materials bunkers inside Iran. So everybody’s happy, apparently. Iran has formally carried out its face-saving appropriate response, nobody got hurt, and now Israel, Iran and the US are talking peace.
If that’s all true that’s good news and I’ll take it. Nobody wants World War III, except perhaps nine-tenths of Christian fundamentalists. But that’s a story for another day.
I’m provisionally relieved. But the fact that Trump casually put us at risk in the first place is unacceptable. True, Trump actually managed to get a good result from a stupid, unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, but he gets no credit for the outcome. It was dumb luck. Sometimes having dumb luck is just as effective as being clever.
Trump could have achieved the same result by skilful negotiation and without firing a shot. But that would require a talent Trump doesn’t have. The “Art of the Deal” is a myth. Trump is arguably one of the worst negotiators I have ever seen.
I’ve known this since the late 80s or early 90s. Back then I watched a TV special in which Trump was followed around by television cameras. They caught him in the midst of a deal for a casino with Merv Griffin. Trump bragged on camera about what a great deal he got and what a lousy deal Griffin got, and how stupid Griffin was and how smart he was, and so on. He did it on camera. For the whole world to see.
So Trump’s stupid, brazen braggadocio is nothing new. There is no art of the deal. Trump is about as subtle as a bulldozer and stupid as a cockroach. His hamfisted dealings in the Middle East didn’t take us into World War III on this occasion, but there’s still time.
This is why Trump has to go. Trump isn’t just bad for America, he’s bad for the world and a danger to the perilous stability the rest of us are trying to maintain. If his popularity continues to wane and actually dips down into his MAGA base, then we could perhaps muster the votes necessary to impeach, convict and throw him the hell out of office.
Even Marjorie Taylor Greene has spoken out against Trump and his attack on Iran. That’s something I wouldn’t have thought possible two months ago. The slow and steady erosion of his popularity may be enough. We’ll have to see.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.