President Donald Trump’s actions, particularly concerning his transformation of Washington’s monuments and public spaces, represent a significant and increasingly concerning shift in his political trajectory. As he wrestles with the monumental and the absurd, his legacy risks being dominated by a US strategic stalemate in Iran, the unaddressed economic anxieties of millions of Americans, and Republican Party schisms stemming from personal obsessions. This unusual political bifurcation means Trump is juggling some of the gravest issues confronted by a modern president, including the war, and some of the most trivial, such as a dispute over Washington’s Reflecting Pool. It helps explain polling by CNN and other outlets three months before midterm elections that reveal low approval ratings and dissatisfaction on issues voters care about most. By any conventional measure, this is a presidency in trouble. The traditional response would be to behave in a more focused way. But Trump is different from most presidents; he doubles down; he picks fights designed to please his political base; and he engineers sudden changes of course. Throughout a turbulent weekend, Trump oscillated between profound and preposterous issues that all seem to merit equal time in his mind.nnHe threatened to deploy the worst ‘terror, strength, and power not seen since World War II’ against Iran. But in the same social media post he put US military action on hold. The president told reporters Sunday that he listened to Gulf allies and that talks on a deal would begin Monday afternoon. His move was typical of the chilling threats and sudden reversals of a war that Trump claimed he’d won after a few days and that is now heading into its sixth
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Source: CNN
