The Iran War is Failing and Trump's Usual Moves Aren't Working
The president started something he can't control and appears out of ideas
The Iran war is exposing President Donald Trump’s unfitness for national leadership. The lie-filled bluster and escalation he relied on to succeed in business and domestic politics aren’t working, and the situation is out of his control. The world is interconnected and other people get a say, including oil companies and energy markets. But Trump never understood that, and since he has no other moves, he’s kept doubling down despite no plausible path to victory, making things worse.
With Venezuela, Trump said he attacked to take oil, equating his personal rapaciousness with national interest. After U.S. special operations forces ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, Trump found the rest of the Venezuelan regime more pliable, including now-interim President Delcy Rodriguez, and told U.S. energy companies to go get Venezuela’s oil.
Except those companies didn’t want it. Which shouldn’t have been a surprise. Venezuela’s oil deposits are dirty, needing considerable refinement, and drilling isn’t profitable unless oil is priced higher than it was at the time. The infrastructure is poor, and U.S. companies would have to spend billions developing it. And the security situation was volatile after the U.S. military overthrew the national leader. Oil is flammable, and platforms would be a target if an insurgency develops.
But apparently it was a surprise to the White House. Trump berated energy executives, but that didn’t work. They won’t throw away money just because he told them to.
With the Iran war, Trump is trying…
Read the whole article for free at MS.NOW here: https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-iran-war-strait-hormuz-failing-business