Donald Trump’s luck has finally run out

Steve Schmidt
Mar 19

Donald Trump started a war in Iran, and he has no idea how to stop it.

Over and over again for the last 12 years Donald has approached American politics as if it were a reality show, where the events of the prior episode are completely irrelevant to the present.

Cause and effect don’t exist in this world where all that matters is how Fox News covers the details.

Here was Stephen Miller to Laura Ingraham last night:

Yes indeed, the great warlord Donald Trump has ensured that “from a military planning standpoint, this has been exquisite.”

LOL.

We are living in a “South Park” episode, with the main difference being the lack of imagination for the spectacular Trump idiocy at hand.

Thus far, the United States has destroyed between 7,000 and 15,000 Iranian targets, including military infrastructure, drone, and missile sites, during the campaign that has replaced one Ayatollah Khamenei for another, younger, and more extreme version.

Certainly, none of the things that Trump claimed were the reason for the attack have come to pass.

The regime has not fallen.

In fact, it has taken a brutally hard punch and not wobbled.

The decapitation strikes have failed; the continuity of Iranian government operations has not been disrupted, as scores of senior Iranian leaders have been killed without toppling the regime. The Iranian people have not risen up in the streets. Trump‘s initial blustering and promises have not held up.

Here is what he said at the beginning of the attack:

Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world…

For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests…

The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties; that often happens in war. We’re doing this, not for now; we’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission….

Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand… When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will probably be your only chance for generations.

His words aren’t just empty and hollow; they are meaningless.

The Iranians have not surrendered.

They have escalated the war, and America’s allies want no part in the debacle.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made clear yesterday that America will be fighting alone. He said he “would have advised against” attacking Iran.

Oil stands at $110 per gallon, and it is rising quickly as military attacks on oil infrastructure across the Middle East intensify. The shock to the American economy will be immense. The shockwave is going to hit hard, and there is nothing that can stop it.

There are no people around Trump who can look him in the eye and tell him that he made a mistake. He is surrounded by sycophants and opportunists who are in a perpetual competition against one another to flatter the leader first, often and the most. What goes on inside the White House is a version of the puffery that takes place on Fox News from dawn to dusk.

It isn’t real.

It’s a TV show.

A deadly show, with 200 American casualties and 13 killed in action.

Generally speaking, Trump has not paid a very high price for his epic and unrivalled incompetence.

Mostly, he has skated smoothly over the thin ice, never falling in. He is nothing if not lucky, but it looks like his luck has finally run out, having been run down by his own breathtaking stupidity.

Like a gambler behind at the table, what comes next for Trump is an escalation marked by erratic gambling.

He will place more and riskier bets, but instead of pushing chips across the table, he’ll be playing with American lives.

Soon, all mention of the idea that air power was enough to topple the Ayatollahs will disappear from the conversation. Soon, it will seem like it was Trump’s plan to invade Iran all along, at least on CBS and Fox News.

We are on the front end of a great war. It is a bending of reality that will seek to fit events into neat boxes, where the bow looks exactly like what Trump predicted would happen, while of course being as near to its opposite as anything can possibly be.

Trump promised peace but started a war.

He said that the war he started would be an easy war—”a short excursion.”

He said the United States would bomb the ayatollahs to an unconditional surrender.

None of this has happened.

Donald Trump said that we went to war because we faced an “imminent threat” of attack from Iran.

That wasn’t true.

Lies and propaganda do not stand up for long against reality in wartime.

Donald has already failed to achieve the aims of his war, besides distracting from the Epstein files.

The Iranian regime is not collapsing, which means that Donald is losing a war to the mullahs.

His weakness and idiocy have made the world profoundly more dangerous and have done so at great cost.

The “America First” movement is asking for $300 billion for the war, while “Trumponomics” has reduced US job growth to zero while pushing inflation higher. It is a disaster.

It is all falling apart for Donald.

His presidency is a wreck.

Of course, we are all aboard the ship, which makes for interesting times, to say the least.

Remember, there is no Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There is only a deranged Trump.

There is no escaping the consequences in Trump’s second term. They are coming due.

Trump is losing a war and breaking the economy.

MAGA!

Two hundred and twenty-eight days from now, MAGA is going to face the wrath of the American voter.

The judgement will be brutal.

History will be worse.