Black Magic

Donald Trump has a unique gift, on full display since his first moments as President: he can make any problem larger in scale, creating imminent potential calamity out of any circumstance.

This week's brush with all out war with Iran was the result of Mr. Trump's latest  effort at escalation but there have been many others of major significance:

 His obsession with the "Wall". Mexicans, and then an expanding array of South Americans presenting an existential problem to this nation, the rapists and criminals then followed by the "caravan" of women and children heading our way to destroy our very way of life.

 Muslims from virtually anywhere on the planet seeking to infiltrate the fabric of this country, each and every one posing a major threat, not one worthy of our compassion or our outstretched arms. Opening our borders to those fleeing the horrors of their homeland merely extending an invitation to terrorists.

Fire and fury. In the universe the President occupied, he found himself in a torrid relationship with the leader of North Korea, alternating between bromance and a threat of total annihilation. As the forerunner to this latest brush with this Creator's tsunami, we worried about whether our West Coast was now within range of a nuclear attack.

These are but a few of the endless array of foreign entanglements amplified by a wave of Mr. Trump's small hands. The trade wars so,"easy to win" not only with China, but with allies like Canada and Mexico, the withdrawal from the nuclear treaty with Iran based on some still to be discovered breach. The list stretches as far as Mr. Trump's imaginings take us.

And yet even as he can ratchet up, so can Mr. Trump ignore and minimize evident truths if that suits his purpose: the role of the Saudi leadership in the killing and dismembering of Mr. Khashoggi, the abandoning of the Kurds, allowing President Erdogan and Turkey a free path to invade Syria and put our ally directly in harm's way, Mr. Putin's attempted manipulation of our own country's election.

Even as we understood that the assassination of General Suleimani was predicated on nothing so much as Mr. Trump's desire to poke a stick in the eye of Iran's leadership,this presents but one more example of the smoke and mirrors tricks we have come to expect from our President.

Donald Trump is a magician making facts seem larger or smaller than they are, or having them disappear completely. Practicing black magic as our nation reels.