A toddler trying to convince their parents of something is pretty darn transparent. “Mom, I need to have a cookie because it helps me grow!” Yeah, right.
And unfortunately, that’s about where DJT clocks in with his “strategy”.
Venezuela
He had the military attack unarmed fishing boats (calling them “drug boats”) for a while hoping Maduro would do something violent that he could use as an excuse for getting way more military on his heinie. But Maduro didn’t take the bait. Finally Trump lost patience and just sent the military in to kidnap a sovereign country’s leader. Sure, a bad man, we can all agree on that, but there’s that part about “sovereign country.” Yes, we’ve meddled with sovereign countries in the past but usually we’ve made at least a half-hearted attempt to conceal our actions.
And then, after Maduro’s kidnapping, mysteriously there were no more drug boats. What a coincidence.
Epstein Files
The Epstein thing was getting out of hand. Folks just wouldn’t shut up about it. Never mind that his followers seemed to actually be pretty OK with it. Afterall, what red blooded male wouldn’t bang teenage girls, ammirite?
So Trump decided to start a complete wag the dog war to distract. Iran was still in the “trying to enrich uranium”, no tests of actual bombs, no tests of delivery mechanisms. Contrast that with North Korea that has both tested bombs and long range missiles capable of reaching the US. But Iran, ooooo, really scary. He cast them is an “imminent threat” and had to expend a butt ton of really expensive ordinance and a bunch of human lives (both US and Iranian) attacking their country. To destroy their nuclear program that he’d proudly announced he’d destroyed months earlier. Sure, that’s why he had to attack ’em. Not because he was diddling teenage girls.
The Ballroom
What straight man wants a ballroom? Never mind that, he’s turning anything into an excuse why he *needs* that ballroom. Because it’ll be super secure (or something). I guess he feels he needs to have a lavish ballroom before he has his buddy Putin over to visit. Makes the toddler strategy of insisting they really need the cookie seem pretty sophisticated.