Alan Zendell, August 8, 2026

No, this is not about the 1987 Kevin Costner/Gene Hackman film of the same name. But President Trump seems to have no more options than Costner did when struggling to survive as the target of a corrupt general. Trump has gotten himself into a pickle that only an irrational narcissist like him could have. Since starting his war against Iran, Trump as usual ignored the recommendations of military professionals and national security experts, claiming he could make better decisions based on his gut feelings and what he described as his morality, of which there is little or no evidence.

If it were only Trump’s pickle, there would be some justice in it. I can’t think of a politician who more richly deserves to be entangled in his own web of lies and insanity. But the problem he has created is and will continue to put all Americans at grave risk. Trump’s total failure to understand his enemy and his disregard of our allies, NATO in particular, has caused him to blunder time and again since the first bombs landed on Iran more than five months ago. His desperation to retain Congressional majorities in November, his irrational focus on vanity projects and prosecuting political enemies, and his unprecedented corruption in office has caused his approval ratings to drop to a level not seen since the days before Richard Nixon resigned.

Trump started his war with three demands whispered in his ear by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Iran was to completely dismantle its enriched uranium program and turn over all of the uranium it weaponized after Trump tore up the JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal of 2014; an end to Iran’s state sponsored terrorism; and a regime change from the extremist ayatollahs to a genuine republic. The last goal is particularly ironic as he is attempting to destroy the American republic he swore to defend. Not one of his goals is close to being achieved, and it is now Iran that is issuing demands, confidently and patiently.

Iran’s leaders understand Trump far better than he understands them. Trump’s severe mental illness makes him extremely predictable, and in war, that’s unacceptably dangerous. Because the only way Trump knows how to interact with people is what he learned from his mafia friends, he thinks over-the-top threats that no one takes seriously will win in the end.

The madness of his social media posts whose principal by-product is chaos does not frighten Iran. But worse from America’s point of view is that Trump assumes Iran’s demands and threats are as invalid as his. He’s completely wrong about that, and he is paying a huge price for his arrogance and ignorance. That would be fine with me if he weren’t dragging all of us down with him.

Iran realizes it has the power to disrupt the entire world’s economy, and it is using that power ruthlessly. In addition, Trump committed a serious error when he promised the Iranian people at the outset of the war that he would free them from the despotism they have lived with since 1979. The very protestors who might have attempted to overthrow the regime in the middle of a war now feel betrayed, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard continues its campaign of public executions.

Trump also miscalculated Americans’ reactions to the war. He knows we won’t let him mount a land invasion, and by now everyone has heard our military leaders warn that this war cannot be won by air power alone. Joint Chiefs Chairman Daniel Caine has reportedly been making the rounds of people close to Trump to underline our arsenal’s dangerously low inventory of strategic weapons. Caine understands that no single messenger can influence Trump and retain his job if Trump doesn’t like the message, so he is attempting to stage a unanimous intervention by senior members of Trump’s Cabinet and advisors.

Caine also warned that each of the military escalations Trump threatened is likely to backfire, not to mention the risk of a widening conflict that places the entire world at risk. The elephant in the room is that if Caine is correct, and I’d put my money on him over Trump in a flash, Trump’s failed diplomacy leaves him nowhere to turn except admitting defeat and withdrawing from the field. That is about as likely as Vladimir Putin apologizing to Ukraine, except that Putin is in far less danger in Russia’s domestic political landscape.

As the days count down to the midterm elections and it’s clear that Senate Republicans are unwilling to pass the Save America Act that would unconstitutionally abridge states’ control of elections, Trump knows that if he loses the House and Senate, he will almost surely be impeached and removed from office, as he should be. The problem we face is that the only obvious way out of the mess he has created is for his own party to neutralize him, but that doesn’t have a chance of happening.

My question is: where does that leave the rest of us? I haven’t heard any answers that give me hope.