What happens when a president starts a war and completely misunderstands the reaction of the country he is attacking?
Unfortunately for the American people, we discover the hard way.
Trump appears to have believed that Iran would not respond to a large-scale bombing operation with economic warfare, even though Middle East experts have argued for decades that if the Iranian regime were ever attacked, it would, with near certainty, attempt to destabilize and cut off a significant amount of the world’s oil supply.
None of this is a surprise.
The idea that Iran would retaliate economically has factored into every previous president’s policy toward Iran for nearly half a century.
Donald Trump thought he was different and that Iran would never do this to him.
According to AAA, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by four cents since yesterday. The national average is now $3.67. The price has increased twenty-six cents over the past week and seventy-four cents per gallon over the past month.
Another week of war will likely cause gas prices to rise by a dollar a gallon.
Trump’s solution to this problem is to force the rest of the world to clean up its mess.