What did Donald Trump do today?
He stayed up all night trying to fight the Iran War with cringe social media.
Trump was once again awake in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, and once again turned to his boutique social media site to pass the time. At 4:05 AM, Trump told Iran to "get smart soon!" over an AI image of him in sunglasses carrying an assault rifle in front of an explosion-strewn landscape.
The good news for Trump's bout with insomnia was that he was only scheduled for "executive time"—the Trump administration euphemism for time during the work day he spends watching TV or napping—until 11 AM, so he may have gotten some sleep last night. (In fact, Trump is getting a great deal of sleep during the day in his second term, much of it on live TV.)
This evening, he followed up with another AI slop post, a map showing the Strait of Hormuz renamed the Strait of Trump in big gold letters.
Trump likes renaming places, especially for himself, so this is at least consistent behavior. But the map also showed ships briskly transiting through the "Strait of Trump," which in reality, of course, they aren't: in spite of Trump's uncountable declarations of victory in the war that now enters its third month, Iran continues to have complete control over shipping out of the Persian Gulf.
It's not clear what wartime goals Trump hopes to accomplish by posting memes, except maybe to self-soothe a bit. Unfortunately for him, he's not even winning the propaganda war. With gas prices spiking yet again and no end in sight, Trump's war on Iran is extremely unpopular with Americans, almost as unpopular as Trump himself. And as much natural talent as Trump might have as an internet troll, Iranian accounts posting more slickly-produced and, to be blunt, less grandpa-ish content are getting a lot more attention.
Why does this matter?
- Irregular sleep habits, like insomnia at night and excessive sleepiness during the day, are not signs of good cognitive health in the elderly.
- Posting a cartoon of what it will look like after you somehow win a war is not the same thing as winning a war.