How Marco Beat JD with One Weird Trick

1. Little Marco

This week Marco Rubio testified to the following under oath:

Sen. Booker: You keep telling us how we’re winning this war.

Sec. Rubio: Well, the war is over now.

Never mind that the administration has steadfastly maintained that what is happening in Iran was not a war. Because words have meanings and if America was waging “war” against Iran then the president was violating the law by not getting congressional authorization.¹ No, put that to the side.

Instead, focus on what Rubio said on May 5:

[W]e’re going to continue to systematically clear this passageway through the straits to restore freedom of navigation.

This has not happened. Here’s the log of daily traffic through the strait since the it’s-not-a-war started:

Point is that Rubio has been wrong about the Iran war from the jump. And that’s why Trump has begun elevating him above JD Vance in the Favorite Adopted Son sweepstakes.

It’s clear that Trump is displeased with JD Vance. Early on, when Trump thought he was winning in Iran, there were leaks about Vance not being onboard with the war. Daddy Trump sent Vance to negotiate with the Iranians when they clearly had all the cards, setting him up for failure—and at the same time took Rubio with him on vacation to fight night. There was a huge dump of leaks designed to show that Trump doesn’t think Vance has the juice.

What happened? Iran.

In a rational world, you might expect Trump to see Vance’s correct assessment of Iran as a positive and Rubio’s mistaken assessment as a negative. But that’s not how humans work. As Albus Dumbledore says,...