(Dobbs) Where Does He Come Up With This Stuff?The ping pong ball bounces back and forth so erratically because the president does.
Some say he’s deceitful. Some say he’s delusional. Some say he’s diseased. Some say he’s demented. It doesn’t matter. Those descriptions all might apply to Donald Trump. Some definitely do. But no matter what the reason why, the scary fact is that when Trump speaks, whether deceitful, delusional, diseased, or demented, we can’t believe a word he says. It’s “scary” because this isn’t just some crazy uncle we’re talking about. It’s the president of the United States. When something comes from a president, every word matters. Every word can shake the world off its foundations. He knows it. He revels in it. All of us endure the agony. He goes back and forth on his versions of events like a ping pong ball. Especially on the war. On one day, Iran’s leaders are “very rational people” and “nice to deal with.” He even said they are “not radicalized.” On another day— this past Wednesday, at the NATO summit in Turkey— they are “scum.” He told reporters, “They’re sick people…. they’re vicious, violent people.” He called them “liars,” and “cuckoo.” Someone asked him why he changed his mind. He said, “I got to know them.” Which raises the question, if you didn’t know them before, why did you pay them such praise? This came after the latest series of attacks and counterattacks between Iran and the U.S. It was enough for the president to declare the end of negotiations: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.” That prompted comedienne Tiffany Haddish, who is replacing Jimmy Kimmel this week on ABC, to ask, “Can you say something is over when it never really got started?” The peace talks have been jokes. Not funny jokes, but jokes. They have gone nowhere. Once, the Iranians didn’t even show. Who’s gaming whom? In one single month, President Trump set deadlines five times for Iran to make a peace deal. Five times it didn’t. Five times the president threatened Iran with as much as total obliteration if it didn’t wave the white flag. Five times he turned tail and ran. The ceasefires have been jokes. Deadly jokes, but jokes. It looks like Trump wants them more than Iran does. Back at the end of March he assured us Iran was “begging for a deal.” Obviously it wasn’t. Iran is the one that apparently has broken most of the ceasefires. But having made a colossal and costly mistake starting this ill-conceived war, Trump wants out, so his retaliatory attacks are just what he calls “love taps.” Early in May, during one of the ceasefires, Iran attacked American ships helping commercial vessels get safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Normally that would provoke massive U.S. retaliation. But it didn’t. The Pentagon said it remained “below the threshold” for violating the ceasefire. Who knew? That would explain why the ping pong ball bounces back and forth so erratically. Because the president does.Share In Turkey, Trump gave us his rose-colored glasses view of the war— which in the spirit of his butcher buddy Vladimir Putin he now is trying to call no more than a “special military operation.” His assessment was, “I think anything that happens is going to be over very quickly, and we’ll only make it safer, including for oil. Oil is going to be very free, very easy, and it’s going to happen very fast. We have the Hormuz Strait; the boats have pulled out. I mean there’s a gusher of oil right now, we have a lot of oil.” Where does he come up with this stuff? “Over very quickly?” How many times have we heard Trump say that? I’ve written a lot about it but at this stage, four-and-a-half months into the war he started, I’ve lost track. His rhetoric is as empty as his heart. “We have the Hormuz Strait?” Exactly when did that happen? Iran has controlled it and still threatens shipping traffic trying to get out. European allies say they won’t participate in any campaign to get things back to normal, if there’s even a chance of getting things back to normal, until the fighting has not just subsided, but stopped. A “gusher of oil right now?” The reality is, an estimated 63 million barrels are tied up and can’t transit the strait. Whether he is deceitful, delusional, diseased, demented, or all of the above, who can believe this man? Is it any wonder that America’s longtime allies have not jumped into the shooting barrel with us?Leave a comment Iran has not gotten out of this without a beating, a bad beating, but in the big picture, Iran holds the cards, not the U.S. Trump miscalculated the Iranians’ capacity to endure hardship. And their determination and resources to fight back. They are enduring the war. We are not. They hold the cards. We don’t. © 2026 Greg Dobbs |