Originally a comment by Steven on A war of choice.

Iran responds by…attacking Saudi Arabia. Makes sense.

It does make sense.

Trump acts like a Mafia boss. He’s boss of the U.S.; now he wants to be capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses). He is demonstrating his ability to remove other capos. He removed Maduro; now he is going after the Iranian leadership. Pick off the ones who defy you and the rest will fall in line. It is the same tactic that he uses to keep Republican legislators obedient to him: he primaries any who aren’t.

But Saudi Arabia is already obedient to Trump. They do him obeisance; they paid the $1B bribe to be on his Board of Peace. As with any extortion racket, what protection money paid to Trump mostly gets you is protection from Trump. But at some point, Trump does have to be able to protect the people who pay him. If he can’t, then their calculus changes. Maybe they start doing deals with each other (cf. the E.U.) Maybe they decide to take their chances with a U.S. air strike.

So it does make sense for Iran to attack Saudi Arabia. It is one of the few things they can do that will matter to Trump.