Two spats

Published 4:41 p.m. today

By Carter Wrenn

Running out of missiles, glaring across the table, voice biting, Trump accused Pete Hegseth of misleading him. Hegseth pointed at his Deputy Secretary of War, shifting the blame to him.

It was like watching a squad of high school boys having a spat.

When he attacked Iran, President Trump, sounding sensible, told us we had to stop the mullahs building nuclear weapons. Telling himself the war would end quickly – which is what he wanted to believe – Trump thought winning would be easy. But the mullahs dug in their heels, fighting back blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices shot up. Voice hiding his unease, Trump told us we don’t have to worry about the mullahs building nuclear weapons – their plutonium’s buried beneath mountains we bombed a year ago. Scrambled to make a peace deal,

It’s hard to fit those two pieces of a puzzle together.

Running out of missiles – another misstep – leaves us standing on shaky ground. Maybe that’s Hegseth’s fault. Maybe it’s Trump’s. But the mullahs see it. And China and Russia, our two most powerful enemies, see it.

Meantime, up in Washington, the boys have started another spat. When his renovation of the reflecting pool failed, shifting the blame Trump pointed the finger at vandals, ordered Jeanine Pirro to arrest a sixty-seven year old man who’d once been an Olympic athlete. Pirro investigated. Saw the man wasn’t a vandal. Dropped the charges.

Fuming, Trump erupted berating Pirro – so in the middle of a war we’ve got a spat on our hands over a reflecting pool.

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