Trump's Whiplash Foreign Policy, Iran War Escalates, Graham Platner Drops Out

President Trump called Iranian leaders "scum" yesterday, just three weeks after praising them as "brave people" who were "rational" and "smart." The reversal is the latest example of the whiplash that has come to define his foreign policy — a pattern that played out simultaneously at the NATO summit, where Trump berated allies before declaring he felt "the love in the room." Meanwhile, the U.S.-Iran war escalated with back-to-back nights of strikes and Iranian retaliation, and the Democratic primary for a critical Maine Senate seat was thrown into chaos when insurgent candidate Graham Platner suspended his campaign after a rape allegation.

Trump's Whiplash Diplomacy

White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez described the president's shifting tone as part of a consistent pattern. "It's really like these different faces of the same president trying to will this war to an end," he said. Three weeks ago, Trump called Iranian leaders "very rational people" who were "nice to deal with." Yesterday in Turkey, he called them "scum" and "sick people," declaring "I don't want to deal with them." When pressed on the contradiction, Trump strained to reconcile the two assessments, saying the leaders were "more rational" but that their recent actions meant "I'm not sure I want to make a deal with him."