Rachel Maddow

president, Donald Trump, inexplicably starting a war with Iran for reasons he has yet to explain and with goals he has yet to credibly articulate.

This weekend, President Trump announced a no-ifs-ands-or-butts ultimatum that if Iran doesn't open up the shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz by today, by Monday, Trump promised he would commit a capital-W, capital-C war crime.

He said he would bomb Iran's civilian power plants.

Starting, quote, with the biggest one first.

That was the ultimatum as of Saturday.

He would do that today, unless the Strait of Hormuz opened up.

Today rolled around.

And even though it's not even yet Taco Tuesday, Trump nevertheless backed down.

He announced that he has delayed his planned war crime because there are now new talks, he says, happening between us and the Iranians.

The Iranians say, no, there aren't any new talks going on.

Suspiciously, Trump won't say who these supposed talks are with, but he says they're definitely going great.

And even though he says they're going great, now he's also sending 4,500 sailors and Marines over there, and the New York Times is reporting that he's considering calling up the 82nd Airborne as well.

How well are the talks going?

However well Trump says these phantom supposed talks are going, watch what he does, not what he says.

And if you do that in this inexplicable war, it really seems like Donald Trump has started something he has absolutely no idea how to finish.

And aside from everything else this war is doing, there is a very real prospect it is going to crater not only our own economy, but the world economy, with Trump having no plan for that whatsoever.

Put it lightly, we are having some drama at the moment.

I mean, because of the president and his Republican Party's policies in Washington, two million Americans have lost their health insurance.

Just since the beginning of the year, for millions more, health care has become dramatically, dramatically more expensive, specifically because of Republican policies.

The Federal Reserve just announced that there has been, quote, zero net job creation in the private sector over the past six months.