Trump's messy makeover reveals golden age of chaos

Key Takeaways

• TOI correspondent from Washington US President Donald Trump is facing growing questions about the coherence of his middle-east policy after claiming he has deliberately "spared" Iran's military, despite repeatedly declaring that US forces had already "decimated," and "obliterated," Iran's military capabilities.The apparent contradiction has become a metaphor for a presidency increasingly marked by conflicting narratives, stalled diplomatic initiatives, domestic legal setbacks, and a stream of wacky social-media posts that project confusion and chaos rather than confidence.
• Domestic and foreign policy analysts accustomed to searching for consistency in presidential doctrine are reaching for aspirin as they track a White House that often resembles reality television in which the star keeps announcing victory while the sets collapse behind him.The latest example is Iran, where Trump is now alternating between boasting that the US had devastated Iran's military capabilities, and suggesting, in a weekend interview sans pushback with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, that Washington had magnanimously chosen not to finish the job.
• The MAGA boss said eliminating the Iranian military – which he now claims is moderate – would have left the US no one to negotiate with.At home, Trump faces a series of similar embarrassing setbacks.
• The much-publicized Freedom 250 celebrations marking America's quarter-millennium are crumbling amid reports that several entertainers have bailed out.
• An enraged President went into a petulant midnight meltdown on Truth Social over the fiasco, saying that he is scrubbing the extravaganza because “overpaid artists” were getting the “yips.” So instead, modestly announced he is “thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime,” viz himself.Then there is the World Cup football.