Wagging the dog

As the Trump regime runs into stronger legal and public opposition to his immigration policies, Show runner Donald is borrowing from a 1990s black comedy about hyping a possible war to distract voters.

In the 1997 satire "Wag the Dog," a president turns to a spin doctor and Hollywood producer to ahem, trump up, a phony war with Albania to distract attention from a sex scandal.

There’s no need for Trump, who has played both his own spin doctor and a successful businessman on TV, to hire anyone. Remember, he simply paid off the porn star to try to make the story go away, a decision that eventually found him guilty of 34 counts of criminal fraud.

But the Felon-in-Chief does appear to be confused about his current role, thinking he, not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is calling the shots in the escalating showdown with Iran.

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Iran had good sky trackers and other defensive equipment, and plenty of it, but it doesn’t compare to American made, conceived, and manufactured ‘stuff.’ Nobody does it better than the good ol’ USA.”

You might say the tail is wagging the dog.

This terrifying distraction comes as the Trump regime is running into problems with its handling of its pledge to rid the country of criminal undocumented immigrants. And the fact his last PR distraction, a military parade to celebrate his 79th birthday, oops, I mean the Army’s 250th anniversary, failed to meet his expectations.

The crowds he thought would descend on Washington to pay homage instead turned out in 2,000 rallies across the nation to declare we have No Kings. And the more than 4,800 National Guard troops and Marines he unilaterally sent into California are standing around doing nothing as the occasional bouts of rock and fireworks throwing have subsided.

So Trump is now trying to take responsibility for Netanyahu’s war, which in a twisted sense he did bring about when he pulled the United States out of a flawed but somewhat effective treaty to prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon.

“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” a grim-faced Mr. Trump said in an 11-minute address from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. “It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace, and it never will.”

Undoubtedly that’s why Trump launched a new round of negotiations this year for an agreement structured much along the lines of the one he withdrew from.

But he’s run into a couple of snags along the way, the least of which is Israel’s bombing campaign that killed Iran’s chief negotiator.

A far biggesr issue is that Trump’s online and on-camera threats have driven a major wedge into his coalition, with hawks like Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton singing John McCain’s chorus, while super MAGAts like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene side with the doves.

Even pollsters are having a hard time gauging whether the man elected on the promise to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza on Day One should get involved or stay clear.

Netanyahu’s goal is the obliteration of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, including a uranium enriching facility buried deep in a mountain. Something that can only (potentially) be accomplished with an American-made “bunker-busting bomb” carried on an American stealth bomber.

We already know how successful Netanyahu has been in his efforts to obliterate Hamas by obliterating Gaza. He has likely created a new generation of potential terrorists by his indiscriminant bombing of women and children.

The same fate is likely in efforts to wipe out Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Make no mistake, Iran poses a serious threat to Israel’s right to exist, as does Hamas. But as we’ve seen repeatedly in the Middle East, most recently when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, brutality only begets brutality

The treaty Trump rejected was painstakingly negotiated over years. He gave Iran 60 days to agree to a new deal and Israel launched an attack on Day 61.

To be fair, if wars are won or lost on social media superiority, Trump has scored a resounding victory. Perhaps he should take the win, detach himself from Bibi’s leash and work toward a diplomatic settlement that ensures both Israel’s future and that of the rest of the planet.

And then he can get back to destroying the world’s economy and the Constitution as his (dwindling) supporters want him to do.