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Donald Trump is fighting an earlier battle.
In Iran, the downing of an American F-15 fighter jet, with the dramatic rescue of the second missing crew member, announced by the president yesterday, was good news for the special ops teams who risked their lives to find him. But the fact that the plane was accidentally shot down undermines Trump’s argument that the murderous mullahs are powerless to fight back. And it highlights what soldiers have always known: War is hell.
It’s the same with the Iranians downing an A-10 attack plane, and although the pilot was quickly rescued, it shows the unpredictable nature of war.
At home, Trump has been firing top aides, and targeting others for firing. The firing of Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, along with media reports about who will be next, has fueled concern throughout the Cabinet. The only person who might be safe at this point is Jared, given the position of being her son-in-law.
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President Donald Trump is now waging a war of two proverbs. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
There is a connective tissue between these ongoing battles. They show a president who goes through security checkpoints, yells at his allies, starts an unexpected war with little explanation, and then turns on those he deems trustworthy enough.
To his supporters, Trump is getting results because he is not afraid to take risks that have crippled previous presidents fighting the world’s leading terrorist state.
To those who oppose him, Trump is ruthless and reckless, beating himself into impossible corners by failing to adequately plan for the inevitable consequences.
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By any reasonable measure, US and Israeli warplanes have destroyed the Iranian military machine with very low casualty rates.
And Iran’s cheap-to-produce drones have caused some harm to Americans at military bases in surrounding Arab countries, and have caused havoc in Israel, injuring many civilians.
Asked by NBC’s Garrett Haake on the phone whether the F-15 grounding — before the rescue — would affect his negotiations with Iran, Trump said, “No, it doesn’t. No, it’s a war. We’re at war, Garrett.”
Trump called on Iran to “open the f—– Strait” of Hormuz in a post that flooded Truth Social on Sunday. (Sahar Al Attar/AFP via Getty Images)
One of the reasons the president’s speeches were short in the past was that the public expected him to declare victory and get out, no longer threatening to blast Iran into the “Stone Age.” And is he really going to wrap things up in “two to three weeks,” which is his usual layoff for some time in the future?
For the president to urge European countries to simply “take over” the Strait of Hormuz – after announcing that he would not end the war without an agreement to end the blockade of Iran – reflects the mixed messages that have characterized the conflict.
And of course, after washing his hands of anything related to Hormuz, Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday: “Open the F ———Strait, you crazy b——s.”
Wow, where is it? It depends on when you ask him. (CNN used this quote as a banner, unverified.)
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Trump is recommending the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, as someone he can do business with. But Ghalibaf has repeatedly mocked him, writing: “This brilliant and strategic war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can someone get our pilots? Please?’
Maybe the president will lose confidence in him the way he did with Pam Bondi.
This attorney general is now doing a terrible job, from hunting the Epstein files to refusing to deal with sex victims to insulting Democrats in a forum where he proudly announced that this is a distraction from the 50,000 Dow.
Bondi laid the burden on Jamie Raskin, who was leading the Democrats when Trump was impeached for the second time: “You’re not telling me anything, you washed-up loser lawyer. You’re not even a lawyer!?” (Raskin graduated from Harvard Law School and taught constitutional law at American University.)
But that partially explains his removal. Bondi has done everything possible to prosecute Trump’s political enemies. But the charges against James Comey and Letitia James were thrown out by judges or blocked by grand juries who declined to indict.
It’s good to focus on how outrageous it is that the Justice Department has acted like an attack dog on those the president has called guilty. Ever since John Mitchell was imprisoned at Watergate, the department’s mission has been twisted.
Bondi’s potential successor, Todd Blanche, Acting Attorney General, Trump’s former lawyer (and former prosecutor), is supporting Bondi in every move to turn the DOJ into Trump’s Department of Recovery. The president clearly wants Blanche to be even more aggressive.
Trump confirmed this yesterday on ABC, saying: “Everybody wants you. But Todd is doing very well. He’s been with me for a long time.”
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Trump’s lawyers faced a similar fate. He shot Jeff Sessions for recusing the Russiagate investigation, then campaigned against him. Bill Barr resigned under pressure from Trump after finding widespread corruption in the 2020 election, the president later vilified him.
Noem also did a terrible job, seeming more interested in promoting himself than confronting the excesses of ICE, especially the fatal shooting of two American citizens, who he called domestic terrorists. It wasn’t until he falsely accused Trump of authorizing an expensive ad campaign that showed him that he was enough.
As an added tease, we learned that Noem had been able to express herself inappropriately when those extravagant photos of her cross-dressing husband surfaced.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem found herself in the spotlight last week when pornographic photos of her husband surfaced. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)
Now there are media reports that Trump may fire Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who has been accused of inappropriate relationships with security guards, misuse of public funds and drinking on the job. Several senior aides have resigned, and her husband is barred from entering the building after a sexual assault case.
Trump is also weighing the pink slip of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who often works alone. Lutnick was untruthful about visiting Jeffrey Epstein on his Caribbean island, years after he said he had cut off contact with him.
Trump has been asking aides about firing Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, but appears to have dropped that idea for now. He doesn’t want headlines about cleaning the house thoroughly.
“He’s a little different in his way of thinking than I am, but that doesn’t make someone not there to serve,” he told reporters one day.
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The judge also blocked a subpoena for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the subject of a DOJ criminal investigation related to the agency’s inflated renovation costs for its 89-year-old headquarters.
Cabinet shakeups are occasionally used as quick fixes. In 1979, Jimmy Carter demanded the resignation of all members, and injured Health Secretary Joe Califano, Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, Energy Secretary James Schlesinger, Transportation Secretary Brock Adams and Attorney General Griffin Bell. It didn’t help.
For Trump, it’s almost always a question of loyalty, and for those who fall into disfavor, no butt-kissing is enough.
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So we have a president struggling with his political agenda and potential successors as he wrestles with Iran. You might think that would be stopped as American warplanes are shot out of the sky.
But Trump is the last big job. He also found time recently to complain about his White House ballroom and filed an emergency appeal, citing national security concerns, against a court order that blocked construction.
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Whether the president is working with Pam Bondi or Mohammad Ghalibaf, he does what he wants, when he wants to do it. And it leaves the results for another day.
