Even for President Trump, famous for his habit of contradicting himself, his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday was impressive.<\/p>\n
Indeed, just weeks after imploring Republicans to consider him on the ballot in an effort to stave off what polls suggest could be a landslide midterm defeat, Trump told world leaders the opposite.<\/p>\n
Explaining why the war in Iran has not ended nearly seven months in, Trump said the regime in Tehran was \u201cwaiting to see how I do\u201d in November.<\/p>\n
He then added, \u201cWhat they don\u2019t realize is that I\u2019m not running. I did that already and won in a landslide\u2026I gave absolutely no credence [to midterms] when it comes to Iran; it doesn\u2019t even enter my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
While dangling prospects for a deal with Iran following the midterms, Trump put the world on notice that, for now at least, he remains committed to the blockade and threats of military escalation.<\/p>\n
How credible those threats are after months of repetition is questionable.<\/p>\n
That said, it was beyond clear that Trump, increasingly frustrated by a war he cannot force to end and his poll numbers\u2014along with those of GOP candidates throughout the country\u2014falling, decided to turn to bellicose rhetoric, championing the use of American force to secure our interests and his own legacy.<\/p>\n
As the Wall Street Journal described, it was an example of a President putting his legacy ahead of midterm politics.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, for Republicans who will be facing angry voters in a few short weeks, that underscores the depth of their problems.<\/p>\n
To be sure, in Trump\u2019s defense, there is a legitimate case to be made for the decision he described to the world leaders gathered in New York.<\/p>\n
Wars do not run on a political calendar, and any commander-in-chief who bases military decisions around an election is a bad one.<\/p>\n
Criticizing the ways the Iran war has been prosecuted is highly legitimate, yet there can be no debate that denying Iran a nuclear weapon remains a genuine national interest. It is also one that multiple U.S. administrations have promised, only to allow themselves to be bullied or lied to by the Mullahs in Tehran.<\/p>\n
Or, as Trump put it, \u201cWhile others have ignored threats, I have confronted them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further, while Trump\u2019s speech, laden with threats to \u201cannihilate Iran,\u201d could easily be read as a return to gunboat diplomacy, he has had a number of true foreign policy successes that will bolster his legacy.<\/p>\n
He oversaw the latest ceasefire in Gaza, which included the release of the final Israeli hostages\u2014something the Biden administration repeatedly tried and failed at.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro could well lead to the collapse of the regime in Cuba, which Trump threatened and referred to as a failed state.<\/p>\n
However, the costs of Trump\u2019s \u201cmight makes right\u201d approach to using American military force to bend foreign policy to his will are not deferred to history. They will be paid by Republicans in November.<\/p>\n
The national average for a gallon of gas stood at nearly $4.50 on Wednesday, up 40% year-over-year.<\/p>\n
Worse still, diesel\u2014the fuel that packs and transports groceries and other essential items\u2014sits above $6.50 per gallon, up nearly 80% in the last year.<\/p>\n
These have fed into inflation, which remains stubbornly high and forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates: precisely the opposite of what a President would want before a midterm, when history says the party in power is highly likely to lose seats anyway.<\/p>\n
As a result, not only are Americans increasingly frustrated with Trump\u2014his approval rating sits at just 39% and Democrats\u2019 lead in the generic ballot has widened to almost 9 points\u2014but now Republicans are distancing themselves in order to salvage their seats.<\/p>\n
In just the last few days or weeks, Rep. Ashley Hinson, Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, and Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for Wisconsin Governor, called on Trump to end the war.<\/p>\n
Even away from Iran, Florida Rep. Maria Salazar criticized Trump\u2019s deportation tactics with an ad saying they \u201chave gone too far\u201d and threaten Hispanic support in midterms, a demographic that was key for Republicans in 2024.<\/p>\n
Likewise, Sen. John Curtis called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. over his foreign business dealings and reports that his recent wedding was funded by a Putin-linked Russian oligarch.<\/p>\n
Perhaps curiously, despite staunch opposition to the war in Iran\u2014and its likely political consequences\u2014that wasn\u2019t the only sensitive topic Trump bucked public opinion on.<\/p>\n
Despite growing concerns over the consequences of artificial intelligence, Trump doubled down on his opposition to regulating it. Instead, he pledged not to \u201cstifle [AI\u2019s] growth\u201d and suggested renaming it to \u201csuper intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
To that end, with his influence slipping at home amid discontent over the war and other issues, it makes sense that Trump would turn to foreign policy.<\/p>\n
Not only is this an area where Presidents have considerably more power, but many have bet that the way they shape the world will define their legacy.<\/p>\n
The problem is that with mounting economic concerns, voters are considerably more concerned with affording groceries and the possibility of humanity-ending AI incidents than they are with whether the American military can impose Trump\u2019s will on Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba.<\/p>\n
Put another way, bets have costs, and these are now being financed by Republican candidates in Iowa, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, and perhaps even Kansas and Alaska.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, if Trump spends the next six weeks governing with the tone of his UN speech, he is going to spend the final two years of his term battling not distant threats in Tehran, but extremely hostile Democrats in charge just a few miles down the road.<\/p>\n
Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even for President Trump, famous for his habit of contradicting himself, his speech at the United Nations on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[975,2082,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-475177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}