Trump’s current shouting match with the Pope—Trump’s loudness, not the Pope’s—is childish and rather silly and will not really matter much in the long run. Really, this is only Trump “peeing against the wind” and will very soon be pushed out of the headlines as the real giant of the situation is now being rustled out of its lethargy. Chinese ships, which regularly ply the Strait of Hormuz, are now being threatened by Trump’s new military maneuver in the Strait. China will not tolerate that.
Already, the American blockade has been called “dangerous and irresponsible” by Chinese authorities, and leader Xi Jinping just warned Trump against an American return to the “law of the jungle.” This is now one of the few really big dogs speaking, and it can be expected that this new American non-chess move to start blocking shipping in the Strait will be over almost before it gets really started.
China has long-term and very close diplomatic ties with Iran. More significantly, “more than half of China’s energy needs come through the Strait of Hormuz,” which also normally transports at least one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies annually. China will not tolerate any U.S. dilly-dallying with its national supply needs.
That being said, we should all expect this politically and even militarily unwise action by the U.S. to be abandoned very quickly. Trump may indeed be illogical, maybe even a little stupid. He isn’t that crazy, though, at least not yet.
Posting juvenile Truth Social insults against the Pope, a man of peace and diplomacy, and rattling the Chinese over vital economic supplies is not even in the same stratosphere of significance. We should all expect the Iranian War to be ended very, very soon now. And yes, Mr. Trump will have egg on his face, and the U.S. will have a scarlet letter of idiocy hung around its neck to wear for some time.
Like the school kid who farted in the middle of an elementary school English class, the embarrassment will follow the U.S. for years. The next American POTUS will have a lot of making-up to do with the rest of the world. As usual, ‘Nobody likes ugly.’
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.