First Draft: American Idiot Holds World Hostage
Trump embarrasses the US on the global stage, as his disastrous war becomes everyone's huge problem. Plus, you'll never guess why centrists are demanding Democrats stop attacking the 'Epstein class.'
On this day in 2003, the Bush administration launched a ground invasion of Iraq. The US is supposed to finally fully withdraw from Iraq later this year, over two decades later, which might make you wonder: Why would Donald Trump launch a war in Iran?
Good morning! Andrew here to discuss what was a pretty normal day in Donald Trump’s second term: The president of the United States joked about Pearl Harbor with Japan’s prime minister and also made a not-so-subtle nuke threat, as his illegal war in Iran inches closer and closer to spiraling fully out of control.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Trump embarrasses the US again, as his war gets more expensive for everyone; the Department of Homeland Security keeps trying to steal employees from the Pentagon; and muted Eid and Nowruz celebrations are held across the Middle East as the US-Israeli war on Iran rages.
Our Mad King, Global Edition
“Why didn’t you tell US allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, about the war before attacking Iran?” a reporter asked Donald Trump on Thursday, as the president sat in the Oval Office with Japan’s prime minister.
Trump, the man with no filters, no restraint, no sense of decorum, responded by joking about… wait for it… Pearl Harbor. “We didn’t tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise,” he said. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor? … You believe in surprise, I think much more so than us.”
The comments made Japan’s right-wing leader, Sanae Takaichi, visibly uncomfortable – while also confirming that Trump’s administration didn’t inform our allies before launching his illegal war in Iran, a conflict with disastrous implications for the global economy.
Moments like this, in the Oval Office, have become routine under America’s first Mad King. Last summer, Trump joked to Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, that D-Day was “not a pleasant day for you.” Merz quickly corrected him, explaining: “In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.”
But Trump isn’t just embarrassing the US on the global stage, or mocking key allies on camera. He’s spent the past 14 months attacking, threatening, and alienating them with his tariffs.
And with the US-Israeli attack on Iran, Trump has taken our allies along for the ride as he wages what is already the worst-run war in US history, and as the conflict generates blowback of all kinds, both around the Middle East and throughout the world.
And the blowback was entirely predictable.