The world is raining on Donald Trump’s parade. That’s not only the meteorological forecast — the president’s caudillo-style military spectacle in Washington on his (and the army’s) birthday, Jun. 14, may be a downer owing to bad weather. It’s also the case metaphorically, now that Israel has started attacking Iran, possibly causing another war or even, in the worst case, drawing in the United States and ruining Trump’s foreign policy.

The launch orders given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu are awkward for Trump and the US at many levels. First, Trump keeps claiming that all the wars that broke out under his predecessor, Joe Biden, would never have happened on his watch, because he, Trump, is so strong and universally respected. Well, here is a close US ally, Bibi, ignoring Trump’s wishes just as he disregarded Biden’s and igniting yet another conflagration.

Moreover, Trump wants to leave a legacy as a masterful dealmaker and to earn a Nobel Peace Prize for being a “peacemaker.” Since the Russian president keeps snubbing his efforts at ceasefire negotiations in Ukraine, Trump’s best hope for success was negotiating new limits on Iran’s nuclear program. (As of this writing, the next round of talks between Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranians was still slated to take place in Oman on Sunday.) Now an American victory at the negotiating table is hard to imagine. How could Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, make major concessions to the Americans while his regime is being battered by America’s main ally in the region?

Trump’s nightmare scenario is that instead of making peace he’ll end up fighting yet another Middle-Eastern........

© Bloomberg