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Why Trump’s erratic approach to the Iran war is guaranteed to fail

Trump undermines his own threats and sabotages his own negotiations.

By MAX BOOT

Washington Post

August 10, 2026

The unnecessary war with Iran continues to drag on, with no end in sight, more than five months after it started. There are many reasons for this quagmire, but a significant part of the explanation is President Donald Trump’s schizophrenic approach. He veers between conciliation and confrontation, alternatingly praising Iranian leaders as “very rational people” and denouncing them as “scum” — with metronomic regularity.

At least seven times since the start of the war, Trump has vowed to launch devastating attacks before announcing that he was instead giving talks another chance. Most recently, on Aug. 1, he wrote on social media that “the U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” but that he would “hold off any attack” because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.” (Presumably he meant “parameters.”)

Israel is the Mouse That Roared

Netanyahu depends on Trump's favor but also feels free to ignore his demands

By MAX BOOT

Substack

August 9, 2026

Israel is the mouse that roared. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depends on US support for his country’s security and his political survival—Israel couldn’t attack Iran without the US military protecting it against Iranian missiles and drones—but he also feels free to ignore President Trump’s demands whenever he fears that going along with Trump would create a political problem for him at home.

On Sunday, after maintaining a calculated silence, Bibi announced that Israel would not accept the 15-point peace plan announced recently by Trump’s Board of Peace, which calls for Hamas to fully disarm in return for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Is Wokism as Big a Threat as Trumpism?

Andrew Sullivan suggests an equivalency. I respectfully disagree.

By MAX BOOT

Substack

August 8, 2026

I have great respect for Andrew Sullivan as a writer and thinker, and I agree with many of his views. In particular, I agree with him that “the cult of Trump and the cult of Woke” are both an abomination—the former a manifestation of the far-right, the latter a manifestation of the far left. Where he’s lost me is by engaging in what looks like moral equivalence by suggesting, as he does in his latest Weekly Dish, that these twin cults are an equal danger to the republic.