Before launching into my follow-up to yesterday’s post about Donald Trump and his seque into a war with Iran that went astray, let me reaffirm that I am a three-time Trump voter.
In 2024, I supported him because of various views and programs he espoused, including lowering taxes, securing the border and deporting illegals, building up the military, ending the Green Scam, and getting men out of women’s sports. He has delivered on all of those (with the Iran mistake draining the military of assets), but at the same time, I have found that the way he goes about pursuing his goals is often suspect and unseemly.
That’s why, in my headline to this article, I have narrowed the Trump approach to getting his way to two avenues.
One is to create criminals in the public eye out of those who block him or disagree with him. This criminalization usually takes the form of insulting and denigrating posts on Truth Social, but sometimes leads to actual legal action, such as with John Bolton, a former aide now facing possible jail time.
The other is to create a smokescreen — which I’m calling camouflage — to cover up what’s really going on and what Trump’s real motives are.
Some of you may recall that President Richard Nixon was famous for having an “enemies list” that included journalists, including Walter Cronkite, and celebrities, including Paul Newman. Now, whether Trump has an actual enemies list that he maintains is unclear, but one thing is clear. You can join his criminal cadre even after being a loyal Trump supporter. Think Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, including the aforementioned Bolton.
Though he used camouflage to cover up the departure of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who was in truth forced out, his true intent is now coming clear. He has ordered the new acting DNI head, Bill Pulte, to clean out the staff, either vastly reducing its size, or — what the hey? — just closing down shop.
That’s what they get for saying publicly that Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon had been destroyed during Midnight Hammer, the bombing of the country’s uranium facilities.
When it comes to the war with Iran, which has left the U.S. and the world worse off, he thought in the beginning of hostilities that a couple of days of bombing would lead to a popular uprising, which in turn would result in regime change. Either that, or an Iranian Delcy Rodriguez (male version) would emerge to do Trump’s bidding.
When that proved impossible, and six weeks of bombings ensued, Trump pivoted in his stated goal. Now — in true camouflage fashion — the goal is to make sure Iran never gets a nuke. Iran, of course, will never agree to that, or if they do, will use their own camouflage to keep on building a bomb and the missiles to send it toward Israel and the U.S.
That’s why I wrote yesterday that Trump was in a true political pickle: He can never get Iran to agree to his terms without subterfuge, and resuming the war will only harden Iran’s ruling elite and result in bombs away on U.S. facilities in the Middle East and on U.S.-friendly allies in the region.
Meanwhile, he maintains his camouflage. Iran, he says, is close to a deal and has already agreed to turn over its uranium supplies. If you believe that, Trump has a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
