David Frum

He could enact them.

What he is mad about is that he has lost his power.

And that, I think, will be a real theme of the State of the Union address.

The president's desire to insert personal, arbitrary, whimsical, if need be, power, unlimited by anybody or anything.

That power comes to its sharpest point when the issue is one of war and peace.

Congress has not had a chance to debate, but we are very apparently

on the edge of a major war in the Middle East against Iran.

The president has assembled an enormous amount of air and naval resources within striking range of Iran.

He has made threats.

People around him have made threats.

They say they want a negotiation, but they point to the revolver on the table and warn that the revolver will go off.

And war seems to be

imminent.

And it may be even an unintended war.

It may be a war that Trump thinks he can sort of bully the Iranians into exceeding to what he wants to do.

They don't.

And then he's trapped.

He has to go to war, even though he thought he could intimidate them.

And when and if that hope or expectation turns out wrong, he's back into a position where force is his only remaining recourse.

This, again, is arbitrary power.