The Anglo-Saxon King Canute is remembered for only one incident, which almost certainly didn’t happen. Canute is said to have brought his throne to the edge of the sea, and commanded it not to rise – only to get soaked when it inevitably did. The story has been told and retold for centuries as a parable about the limited powers of even absolute rulers.
It’s a lesson that seems to have passed Donald Trump by entirely. The US President has long insisted that America’s problems are actually easy to solve, and just needed the right person – him – to be in power. He could bring prices down, he could solve the wars of the world, he could Make America Great Again.
Trump’s maniacal self-confidence has endured beyond the first year of his second term in no small part thanks to the constant flattery of his subordinates and a friendly online media ecosystem. He seems to genuinely believe that he has “ended 10 wars”, or that he is constantly breaking record highs in his approval ratings among Republicans. Neither is true.
It seems to be this overweening self-confidence that propelled Trump into his war with Iran. One of the founding principles of the Maga movement was getting the US out of its endless entanglements overseas, and instead putting “America First”.
