The questions posed in the initial post on this thread has been avoided as, if my reader was distracted last night, it was announced that Iran and the United States have agreed to a two week ceased-fire and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz will not be interrupted.
The questions, being whether or not the International Criminal Court would be issuing a warrant for President Trump’s arrest for war crimes, along with whether or not he would actually try to go through with his threat, were quite fascinating, but I’m relieved we don’t have answers to the Will he or won’t he? If the military had received illegal orders, how would they react?
That said, if we’re to believe Julianne McShane, President Trump may be metaphorically gushing vital fluids out of his spleen:
President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization have accomplished what nothing over the past year could — turning some of the most prominent voices in his own MAGA base against him.
“This is evil and madness.” “He is a genocidal lunatic.” “Vile on every level.”
These aren’t quotes from Democrats; they’re some of Trump’s most loyal adherents, who are both fed up with what they see as the president’s abandonment of his “America First” platform and alarmed by the destruction he has promised to unleash as his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, looms. [MS NOW]
Not many people are actual sociopaths/psychopaths like President Trump. Most are just people with varying levels of knowledge about what concerns them, and as Trump has paid attention to their concerns and echoed their reasoning back to them, they supported him.
This is true of most of the leaders of MAGA. I was a little surprised to see Alex Jones, who I do take for a psychopath, expressing horror at the above link; there are others, such as the Proud Boys leadership, who may defend the President – or suggest the President is too soft on the Iranian leadership.
But, defenders or not, Trump continues to alienate his base. We may see his approval rating dropping below 30%, a level unheard of in modern American Presidential politics. He’s winning a game he had not planned to play, because winning this one will shorten his Presidential term.
And so long as Speaker Johnson (R-LA) and the Republicans, House & Senate, fail to remove Trump from the Oval Office, they’ll be sustaining reputational damage as the do-nothing political party. Make no mistake, Republican townhalls in all but the most Republican districts will become one-note nightmares:
“Why haven’t you removed President Trump?!”
The leaders who are responsible for the continuance of the Republican Party had best bestir themselves, or they won’t have a Party worthy of the name to lead.
Of course, I may have spoken too soon. This just came up on CNN:
• Strait of Hormuz: Iran stopped oil tanker traffic through the crucial waterway after Israel attacked Lebanon, semi-official news agency Fars reported. According to Fars, just two oil tankers had crossed the strait since the ceasefire came into effect.
Look for more frantic threats from President Trump.
