Opinion: The president loves to intensify a crisis and then declare victory by ending it
that Trump “was pleased with Thursday night’s events because he liked the ‘command’ of approving the strike, but also the decisiveness of calling it off.”
Anyone who doesn’t want to see war with Iran would shout “halleluiah” to Trump’s last-minute stand-down—except, like many of his hasty rationalizations, the Iranian one seems crafted from pick-up sticks and collapses at first touch. It’s impossible to believe he didn’t know beforehand that taking out Iranian military targets would result in the loss of life.
No, the more likely case is that Trump’s bluff got called and he lost his nerve. Of course, that’s a good thing. It’s a much better thing for Trump to lose face this week than the scorching of scores or hundreds or thousands of Americans and Iranians. But the encounter—like many of the other instances in which he bailed—bled from Trump a couple of pints of his presidential power.
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