Tuesday, September 29, 2026
The Downside
So why is the Trump administration seemingly on the ropes, with the Republicans’ midterm prospects considered to be bleak? The main reason is the Iran war; not because of casualties we have suffered in that conflict, which have been almost nonexistent—rather, because of the transitory impact on the price of gasoline.
I think the root cause of the administration’s current malaise is the fact that Donald Trump is not a good politician. A competent politician would have handled the Iran conflict quite differently. It would have begun with an address from the Oval Office in which the president would announce the beginning of the conflict, explain the reasons for it, and outline the administration’s goals. Trump never did that, and his Truth Social posts—which he seems to think fill the role of the traditional address to the nation—have been sporadic, amateurish and inconsistent.
A competent politician would not have empowered the IRGC by wasting months trying to achieve a “deal” that would, in any event, have been worthless. Trump should have carried out the military operation until his announced goals had been achieved, and then terminated it.
And a competent politician, instead of spouting off on everything under the Sun on a daily basis, thus giving his opponents endless ammunition to attack him, would stick to consistent messaging on the most important topics, like the economy and immigration. Instead, Trump’s significant achievements have largely been lost in a blizzard of irrelevant news headlines, usually enabled by Trump himself.
Many people voted for Trump because they liked the fact that he was not a politician. He has done a lot of good things, starting with closing the Southern border. One can argue that everything else is a footnote. But he hasn’t gotten much credit for his achievements, and it is mostly his own fault. Trump has now run for president three times and is serving his sixth year as president, so, like it or not, he is a politician. Unfortunately, he isn’t a very good one, and his supporters are now paying the price.
