Donald Trump is Spinning Plates in the Deadly Minefields of Iran, China and Ukraine

If you’re looking for a video metaphor of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, I offer you the following:

Yep, President Trump is spinning too many plates and is frantically trying to prevent them from falling to the ground in a big crash. When it is a juggling act on the Ed Sullivan Show, it is entertaining. But when it is creating and exacerbating crises in three hotspots around the globe, it is damn terrifying.

Let’s start with Israel and Iran. Trump has been under enormous pressure to greenlight an attack on Iran, according to an article in the Wednesday edition of the NY Times:

That’s the good news… not everyone advising Trump is a crazed Zionist loon eager to bomb. Buried farther down in the article is some bad news:

In attacks on Israel in April, most of Iran’s ballistic missiles were unable to penetrate American and Israeli defenses. Hezbollah, Iran’s key ally, was decimated by an Israeli military campaign last year. The subsequent fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria eliminated a Hezbollah and Tehran ally and cut off a prime route of weapons smuggling from Iran.

Air defense systems in Iran and Syria were also destroyed, along with the facilities that Iran uses to make missile fuel, crippling the country’s ability to produce new missiles for some time.

This is pure, unadulterated Male Bovine Excrement (I think I have to pay Ray McGovern royalties every time I use his artful phrase). The authors of this piece are repeating propaganda about Iran’s April 2024 attack. Iran announced it in advance and did not use its most sophisticated missiles. Strangely, the authors ignore Iran’s October 2024 attack, which featured hypersonic missiles and completely skunked Israel’s air defense system.

The authors double down on stupid by asserting that Iran’s “air defense system” was destroyed in the October 27 attack. If US and Israeli military planners genuinely believe that this is the case, they are making a huge mistake… their assumption is wrong. It is akin to believing that if you tie a sheet to your back you can fly like Superman. I tried that when I was eight years old, but I jumped from the top of an eight-foot shed. Gravity won out over my imagination.

As I anticipated, Witkoff’s negotiations with Iran are getting some heavy pushback from the Zionist crowd. The NY Times also reported on that on Wednesday:

Despite mixed messages from the Trump administration over whether it wants Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear program, Iranian officials said on Wednesday that they would keep talking to U.S. officials and focus on what America says in private during negotiations. . . .

Divisions have emerged within Mr. Trump’s inner circle about what exactly the United States is demanding from Iran in the talks. Mr. Trump has said that he does not want Tehran to weaponize its program and obtain a nuclear bomb.

The U.S. national security adviser, Michael Waltz, has said in recent weeks Iran must dismantle its nuclear enrichment program as part of a deal with Mr. Trump. And though Mr. Witkoff initially said in a Fox News interview on Monday that Iran could enrich uranium at a 3.6 percent cap — similar to the limit laid out in a 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and world powers — he then walked it back in a social media post on Tuesday, suggesting that dismantling the program was the goal.

Iran is not going to surrender its peaceful nuclear energy program. It also has an enrichment program — enriching to 20% — for medical purposes. Iran won’t surrender on that either. We will know by Saturday evening Eastern time, whether Trump’s war plan for Iran is revived.

Then there is the tariff war with China. Trump did that, not Biden. China canceled further purchases of Boeing commercial airliners. For 2025, expected Boeing deliveries to China were projected to add about $1 billion in Boeing’s cash flow. The real danger is China’s decision to limit the export of rare-earth minerals to the United States. The following graphic shows the quantity of rare-earth minerals required to produce just one of each of the weapon systems illustrated:

The quantity of rare-earth metals required to produce one unit of US military equipment:

• 400kg F-35 fighter

• 2300kg Arleigh Burke-class destroyer

• 4100kg Virginia-class multi-purpose nuclear submarine

Trump has made a very bad bet. He thought that imposing exorbitant tariffs on China would force Beijing to beg Washington for relief. That ain’t going to happen. The Chinese are livid and are reacting as if the United States attacked and destroyed a fleet of their ships. China has more cards to play than does Donald Trump, and they have the political will to play them.

Finally, there is Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky has been launching a barrage of verbal bombs at President Trump and Vice President Vance during the past week. I doubt Trump is going to put up with his crap much longer. There are signs that the US is starting to pull the plug of Operation Ukraine. For example, the US military is shutting down its operations at the Polish Rzheszov base. Note, this base went operational in November 2021, which provides further support to my thesis (presented in my article on Tuesday) that the US was provoking the war with Russia in order to weaken Russia and force it to come to the side of the West.

There also is a report that the flood of weapons Biden authorized in the closing months of his tenure as President are now just a trickle. Uncle Sam’s warehouse appears to be closed for further Ukrainian business.

I discussed the situation between Russia and Ukraine with my friend, Daniel Davis, today: