Daily Despot Update

Classic CHEETO.  In way over his head with a war he started that resulted in Iran closing the Strait. Can't bully Iran so now takes his ball and goes home, leaving everyone else to cleanup his $hit.  
7 P's come to mind: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Pi$$ Poor Performance. 

From Bloomberg today:

News that a frustrated Donald Trump may be looking for a way out and Iran’s reported openness to negotiations sent markets skyward. Late in the day, the president said the US would end the bombing in a few weeks. But for much of Tuesday, the administration focused instead on the Iranian stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the growing energy crisis and lack of response to Trump’s calls for help. He threatened allies unwilling to assist in reopening the strait, saying in a social media post, “you’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself.” —David E. Rovella

A previous Trump threat—to let Russia attack other NATO members—didn’t do it. Publicly mulling annexing a NATO ally’s territory didn’t do it. But Trump’s decision to start the now-month long war with Iran may be what finally fractures the 77-year-old defensive alliance.

NATO members are dropping previous efforts at mollifying Trump and instead increasing resistance to his demands they get involved in the war. Spain closed its airspace to US jets and Italy denied US military aircraft bound for the Middle East permission to land at a base in Sicily. Poland said it has no plans to relocate its Patriot batteries following a report the US suggested Warsaw consider sending one to help in the Middle East.

“We’re seeing evidence of confusion and tension between public opinion and political opinion in many NATO countries,” said Ian Lesser, distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “As a default, there is a tendency to be helpful in Europe regarding military-to-military cooperation with the US, but the current war is putting these longstanding defense relationships under strain.”

European nations have coalesced around an offer to build a coalition to enforce freedom of navigation—after the end of active combat. But the broader divergence between European nations and NATO’s largest member remained stark on Tuesday. If the threats to NATO’s cohesion grow, it would confer perhaps the largest benefit of the war so far on the alliance’s chief adversary, Russia, which is profiting handsomely from high oil prices and loosened US sanctions.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has tried to counter fears over the war’s long-term effects on the global economy and energy infrastructure, arguing the oil market is well supplied and the strait should reopen over time. But on Monday, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde was having none of it.

She used an audience of high-level Group of Seven officials to challenge the former American hedge fund manager, warning the central bankers, finance and energy ministers convened for a video call that the effects would be felt for a long time because so much has already been destroyed.

The economic pain is already being felt: Data on Tuesday showed euro-area inflation jumped in March by the most since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Governments in the 21-nation currency bloc, meanwhile, are slashing their outlooks, hoping what they’d envisaged as a year of recovery doesn’t end up instead as a recession."