Foreign Policy says Trump has lost his mojo.
Trump, now focused more on ballrooms and pools than on the Nobel Peace Prize he lobbied for just one year ago, only has himself to blame for prematurely morphing into something resembling a lame duck. The chief cause is surely his decision in February to go to war against Iran. More than six months in, the conflict has drained U.S. resources, raised the cost of living, and turned Trump into one of the most unpopular presidents in recorded history.
Baffling, when wars of choice are usually so much fun.
Trump’s once loyal cabinet officials are now telling reporters that their boss ignored their concerns about attempting regime change in Iran.
The war has almost irreparably damaged Trump’s foreign-policy toolkit. Short on both offensive and defensive missiles, Trump can no longer dangle the possibility of changing battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, a conflict he promised to end in one day, or provide a suitable deterrent to China’s ambitions in Taiwan. The hard realities of a slow industrial base will severely constrain his ability to project power. Inflation, made worse first by tariffs and then by the war’s impact on gas prices, will stymie his decision-making at home and abroad.
Yes but besides that…
The friendships Trump has chosen to trample on—from Canada to Europe to India—were in fact Washington’s secret sauce, the one thing Beijing couldn’t manufacture. In squandering those partnerships, Trump has accelerated the diffusion of U.S. power as well as the process of his own declining influence.
He had a lot of fun trampling though. That’s the important thing.
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