Politely Put or Just Plain Weird: "Thank you for your attention to this matter." Now is the time for peace or you sign your own death warrant, thank you, says Donald J. Trump. By Hal M. Brown

Update: In the post shown below he spelled his own name wrong. Here’s an article about it.

Trump, oddly, ended his Truth Social post announcement of the attack on Iran with the phrase typcially used to close a collection letter. This is also called a dunning letter.

This comes from a president known for not paying bills.

In the two historic “truths” he used the phrase “thank you.” While it is odd, a head scratcher, in the first context, it is totally bouncing off the walls odd in the second. This is an outright warning, a death threat, against Iran. Who, in the name of holy hell raining from the heavens, is he thanking? Is he thanking the reader of his message for reading the message? Is this his version of closing a letter with “sincerely yours” or “yours truly?”

Is the “thank you” meant for the leaders of Iran? Is he saying “thank you for not signing your own death warrant?’ This is macabre.

While others are writing about far more serious matters like whether or not Trump has fired the first shot in what will turn out to be an endless war, this oddity stood out to me.

Trump doesn’t seem to care, if he even knows, that these messages will be studied and parsed by students of history. We know he has speech writers who can craft words that actually sound like they come from a sane person. (He only meandered off the written words a few time in this presentation about the attack.)

His inserting “thank you” in these consequential posted messages may seem to some to be trivial, but obviously I view this as demonstrating that Trump, who takes every opportunity to call Biden a dumb and demented president, is either dumb, deranged, or both.

Nobody should be wondering whether or not Trump’s decision to bomb Iran was made with due deliberation and analysis of possibly short and long term consequences. Trump was being called Donald Two Weeks (web search).

This led me to wonder if he took this to mean Donald Too Weak. It is possible that his decision was ultimately a reaction to the perception that he wasn’t the Rambo-tough warrior he fancies himself to be.

Recommended more serious reading:

Trump Claims 'Peace' With Iran Will Come While Threatening Further War

Scroll down to the bottom of this HUFFPOST article to see what Reid Smith, the vice president of foreign policy at Stand Together, an organization founded by the right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, had to say.

Nicolas Kristoff (The Three Unknowns After…, NY Times subscription )

• But it’s worth remembering something James Mattis, a defense secretary in Trump’s first term, once said: “No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.”

• The third and final question is the largest: Is this the end of the conflict or the beginning?

  Rachel Maddow reacted to Trump’s “quirky” initial message but didn’t refer to his odd ending.

  And then there’s this in Salon: With strikes on Iran, Trump has chosen a path of insanity

  It's time to ask: Is a mental condition driving his foreign policy?

  Lest Trump and Co. forget:

  

  Update:

  Ann brought three copies of the Tao Te Ching over just now. It's the second most published book after the Bible. I opened it at random to this page. She says that this is the best way to read it. It is like the I Ching, letting the cosmos send you a message. It does seem quote relevant. This is what I turned to. (Click to enlarge)

  

Read all my Substacks.

Recent: