In every tough-guy movie, there is a scene where the tough guy—usually an old white guy—turns to his enemy and says something tough.
Something like: “I’m going to kick you in the face. Really hard.” Or, “This time, it’s personal.” Or, some really goofy phrase like “I’m really going to try and fuck you up.”
Well, the president of the United States saw a chance to sweep the knee of foe Iran, who has apparently been training with an old Asian man who needs a lot of housework done. Now a drone has been shot down and President Twitter Fingers is tweeting tough!
On Thursday, tensions between Iran and the United States intensified after an American drone was shot down near the Persian Gulf.
“Iran made a very big mistake!” the president tweeted mid-morning as he and his national security officials gathered to decide if they will, in fact, take the knee out, CNN reports.
CNN notes that the president sent out the tough-guy tweet after reports that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard took credit for shooting down an “intruding American spy drone” they claimed entered into the country’s territory.
The move caused an already touchy dick-measuring contest to grow more volatile. Trump continues to act as if he’s Iceberg Slim.
“Don’t worry about a thing,” Trump told buddy Sean Hannity on Fox News on Wednesday evening. “Everything’s under control.”
From CNN:
For Trump, the situation will provide a test of his willingness to engage Iran after weeks of escalation, including attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf.
In meetings with his national security team over the past several weeks, Trump has maintained his skepticism toward going to war with Iran, telling advisers he isn’t interested in sending American troops into another engagement in the Middle East.
He has also told his team that regime change should not be in the cards — a position he reiterated during a news conference in Japan at the end of May.
That stance has sometimes been at odds with other members of his national security team, including Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both have offered hawkish warnings to Iran over its behavior.
Officials said Trump is not overly concerned with the rhetoric coming from his team, despite frustrations earlier this spring that his advisers appeared to be getting out ahead of him.
Despite the efforts of Pompeo and the Pentagon to demonstrate the extent of Iran’s malign activities in the Gulf by releasing evidence they claim shows Iran was behind the tanker attacks, the posture within the White House in response to these incidents has been less urgent.
Trump can’t decide if these incidents have grown to the level of full escalation, so no one knows if the downing of the U.S. spy drone has proven to be enough to go to war. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from trying to appear like a big tough guy with a combover.