US President Donald Trump should spend less time golfing and more time reading, according to a respected Aussie former diplomat. Former Australian High Commissioner to the UK and Liberal opposition leader Alexander Downer unleashed on the oft-distracted president, suggesting he lacked the intellect and discipline of wartime leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.“President Donald Trump should take a bit of time off golf and plough through the biographies of people such as Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Churchill, [Margaret] Thatcher and even Julius Caesar. He will find that in wartime those leaders had some common characteristic” he wrote in a recent column for The Australian.He said Mr Trump failed to properly communicate his war aims and rally the public behind them. Mr Downer also suggested Mr Trump lacked the “streak of ruthlessness” needed in the pursuit of victory.“First and foremost, he has been unclear in articulating his war aims. He shouldn’t be,” the retired Australian politician wrote.“He should make it clear that he will destroy Iran’s capacity to arm and support proxy groups throughout the Middle East, destroy its capacity to project power, particularly in the Middle East, and to terminate forever its nuclear weapons program.”Mr Downer said Mr Trump should open the Strait of Hormuz using military force and maintain a blockade of Iranian ports until Tehran complies with US demands.“The President has boasted that the US military has destroyed Iran’s air defences, most of its navy, its air force, and its missile and drone production facilities. He needs to make sure the job is properly done,” he said.Mr Downer then picked on Mr Trump’s messaging style.“The trouble with Trump’s style is that he talks too much. His messages are sometimes contradictory and they are replete with exaggeration. After a while, these messages lose their potency,” he wrote.“What is more, they are not inspirational. Trump has failed to articulate clearly enough his war aims, and he has not done so in a way that inspires the American people.”He said Americans, on the whole, are confused about why the war is taking place and blamed Mr Trump for this. He also suggested Mr Trump was too nervous about the increase in oil prices caused by Iran shutting the Strait of Hormuz and should instead be more focused on preparing US military forces to reopen the Strait.“Such victory requires the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, not through some unsustainable memorandum of understanding with an extremist regime such as Iran’s, but by the use of military might. Yet again, Trump is clearly reluctant to use ground forces to force that outcome, failing to employ every means necessary to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has appeared hesitant and has lacked that streak of ruthlessness that characterised great war leaders.”Mr Downer praised Trump as the only US president with the “courage” to take on Tehran but warned he was quickly losing the support of everyday Americans, and the West.“If Trump had read more and posted on Truth Social less, he’d prosecute the war with Iran with courage, inspire his public and be ruthless in dealing with the ghastly Iranian regime,” he wrote.“Still, having said that, it’s in the interests of a safer world that America wins.”On Sunday, July 12, the US military said it launched a new wave of attacks against Iran, after renewed fighting over the Strait of Hormuz saw several of Washington’s Gulf allies targeted by incoming fire.The latest salvo by US forces began at 2100 GMT on Sunday, Central Command (CENTCOM) said on X, after earlier announcing approximately 140 strikes the previous night.The flare-up is the latest to undermine an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending their war, which has caused global economic shockwaves since it began in late February.Oil prices, which have tumbled since the announcement of the agreement, rose over 3.5 per cent when futures trading opened Monday in Tokyo, with the US benchmark WTI jumping above $74 a barrel.Iran reported strikes Sunday evening on two of its southern islands while Kuwait, where Tehran has repeatedly targeted US installations, said border posts and an offshore oil platform had been attacked.The renewed fighting followed an Iranian attack early Sunday on a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whose crew was forced to abandon it after it went up in flames.Read related topics:Donald Trump