Deciphering the Peace President’s, uh, diplomacy?

Anne Applebaum, the historian (and long-time spouse of the current Polish Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski) gives an excellent brief description of how Peace President Trump’s strategic diplomacy works:

Donald Trump does not think strategically. Nor does he think historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. He does not think about how his behavior in one place will change the behavior of other people in other places.

He does not consider the wider implications of his decisions. He does not take responsibility when these decisions go wrong. Instead, he acts on whim and impulse, and when he changes his mind - when he feels new whims and new impulses - he simply lies about whatever he said or did before. (1)

Even when bad Presidents like Dick Nixon and Shrub Bush said something that sounded confused and/or goofy, it was plausible to assume that they were stressed out or distracted about something else. In the Orange President Reality TV Show, who knows what to think when that happens?

Paul Krugman gives his laconic take on the Peace President’s latest mystery public diplomacy on the Iran War. He doesn’t go into a lot of diplomacy or strategic theory considerations. He basically just bluntly describes the obvious, that Trump didn’t know what he was getting into when he joined Israel in starting the Iran War. (2)

The Trump Report features an interview with a British general, Chip Chapman, who does go into more specific issues involving military options in Iran: (3)

Also on The Trump Report, Robert Pape, one of the leading historians on bombing campaigns, gets more into the weeds of the actual strategic challenges the Trump and Netanyahu regime are facing with Iran now. (4) (Although the title they gave the video - “Deploying troops could be Trump's only hope …” - isn’t a very representative one.) He talks about how an assumption that has been repeatedly proven wrong in actual experience for more than a century: the idea that one country can achieve regime change in another by massive bombing alone.

Notes:

(1) Applebaum, Anne (2026): Everyone but Trump Understands What He’s Done. 03/17/2026. The Atlantic 03/17/2026. <https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/03/trump-iran-war-allies/686423/> (Accessed: 2026-23-03).

(2) Adventures in Fantasy Diplomacy. Paul Krugman YouTube channel 03/23/2026. <https://youtu.be/Tc120RAcx48?si=e2HAqOrl2bfNZ4sr> (Accessed: 2026-23-03).

(3) Trump claims Iran breakthrough-Tehran denies it as exit slips away. The Trump Report YouTube channel 03/23/2026. <https://youtu.be/OU6qD53eRTc?si=LGLCk1v4OCWqArZJ> (Accessed: 2026-23-03).

(4) Deploying troops could be Trump's only hope for saving his presidency in Iran. The Trump Report YouTube channel 03/19/2026. <https://youtu.be/uISOkWuM3bA?si=lwfzaYc8juZaDdOR> (Accessed: 2026-23-03).