E.J. Dionne Jr.

I think we are going to deeply regret this war precisely because of how he handled it.

I mean, I think the idea wasn't good in the first place, but he made it so much worse.

This war will raise questions about our lack of staying power in the world.

He goes back and forth to the point where even the Iranians sound like political commentators when they say –

Oh, he's saying this stuff about negotiations because he's worried about the markets and oil prices.

He's creating all this division and alienation among our allies that we're going to talk about.

He's strengthening Russia by lifting those sanctions.

He's taking everybody's eyes off Ukraine, which is what I think we should be in the middle of.

And these inconsistencies and contradictions about our purpose.

sort of the world will look at us and say, what kind of leadership does this country have on one of the most serious questions a country faces, which is whether to go to war?

It's in deep trouble.

And I think you can tell how much trouble it is in when Mark Rutte, the general secretary of NATO, is getting criticized for saying he supports the president's action in Iran because so many countries in Europe, our longtime allies, are at best extremely skeptical about what the president is doing.

And I think there are many reasons we're going to regret that the president took us into this war.

I think that one of the top

reasons, is that if there was any hope of sort of putting the Western alliance, if I can call it that, back on some sort of track, this set it back even further.

Here was President Trump.

First, he puts big tariffs on all these allies and says they're supposed to take it.

And then he says NATO isn't really important.

And then at times he seems to side with Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine struggle.

And he does all this to our allies.