Donald Trump has used a video clip from the TV show The West Wing to threaten Tehran with “disproportionate” bombing – but he’s no Jed Bartlet. Aaron Sorkin’s character was an intellectual. Trump attacked Iran without much forethought. He appears to have no idea how to end the war he started more than 100 days ago.
Trump posted the clip on Tuesday night after Iran shot down an American helicopter, and the US responded with airstrikes. In the fictional West Wing, Bartlet is about to bomb Syria – and is having his own Trump moment. “You kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response. We come back [Bartlet bangs his fist on the table] with total disaster!”
Over in the real West Wing, Trump was having a Bartlet moment, behaving with restraint despite the bluster. He has not acted on the threat conveyed by posting the clip: the US has escalated slowly; the bombing has been (relatively) measured. US Central Command spoke of “self-defence strikes” and “a proportional response” to “unjustified Iranian aggression” (using the exact phrase that angers Bartlet in the clip Trump posted).
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Trump’s threat was part of a pattern. Two months ago, he tried to convince the Iranians they were dealing with a madman, telling them their “whole civilisation will die tonight.” He was bluffing. Tehran expects this by now.
