Nyah nyah I didn’t want to ride your rusty old bike anyway.

Trump on Monday disparaged American allies who have responded coolly to, or outright rebuffed, his call to send warships to escort merchant vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf, complaining that the United States had been defending other countries for decades.

“You mean for 40 years we’re protecting you, and you don’t want to get involved in something that’s very minor?” Mr. Trump said, speaking about the war at a White House event with the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

He went on to say, “We don’t need anybody; we’re the strongest nation in the world,” adding that his request for international help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was really a loyalty test for U.S. allies.

We don’t need your bike, we’re so strong we can go faster without any bike.

“I’m almost doing it in some cases not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react,” he said.

The “almost” is very good. He’s almost a functioning adult. He can almost find his ass in the dark. He almost doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him.

Mr. Trump’s appeal for an international naval escort, which he issued on Saturday, was the first time he sounded eager to build a broad coalition against Iran. But he was asking for backup from allies who had not been consulted ahead of the U.S.-Israeli decision to begin bombing Iran last month, and who have been mocked by Mr. Trump in the past.

Mocked and worse. Mocked and everything else on the menu. Trump isn’t shy about flinging shit at people.

The United States appears to have been unprepared for the extent of Iran’s retaliation and the need to protect ships in the strait, which also carry fertilizer and other products that help fuel the global economy. Mr. Trump has been pressuring NATO to help, with a sharp warning.

It’s not the US that was unprepared for Iran to refuse to lie down and die. It’s Trump who was unprepared for that obvious possibility.

Trump called on China to send naval escorts, too, but Beijing has little incentive to cooperate; Iran, which sells oil to China, is letting its ships pass safely. 

It’s so sad that none of this was obvious until just a few minutes ago. If Trump had known he wouldn’t have attacked Iran! Poor guy, nobody tells him anything.