FEBRUARY 28, 2026 – When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss. It featured an imaginary circus inside the imagination of a kid named Morris McGurk. Morris envisioned a Big Top Circus in place of a vacant lot within the confines of a tall, rickety fence. A sleepy old guy, Mr. Sneelock, with a bushy mustache who smoked a curved-stem pipe was the proprietor of a tired old store next to the lot. What I loved about the book was how a boring and unattractive setting could be turned into a noisy, action-packed, character-filled circus with no limits—at least within one’s imagination. And I liked how Morris had converted Mr. Sneelock’s drab store into a festive lemonade stand, then put the old man in charge.
Of course, even as a kid too young to read, I knew the book was strictly make-believe.
This morning when I heard Trump had launched a war against Iran, the first thing that entered my mind was, If I Ran the Circus, except it came out as, “If IRAN the Circus,” and I knew full well that it was no matter of make-believe. The Clown in Chief has now given us—the world—yet another demonstration of the chaos that reigns supreme inside his thoughts, disposition, character and personality. None of us is safe while he remains on the loose and his enablers dodge accountability.
The illegality of the operation carries its own consequences, though Trump is contemptuously of the law as it might apply to him. But in the Department of Just . . . Plain Dumb, the alarm bells are deafening. In keeping with his life-long pattern, the man is incapable of strategic thinking. He can’t describe his endgame in Iran because he has none. Likewise, he can’t explain how “regime change” (as he put it) in Iran precipitated by war initiated by the U.S. aligns with our national interests—because it doesn’t. And he can’t address the risks, because he has no aptitude for analysis—his own or that provided by others.
What, then, is Trump’s motivation for this operation, which is as hare-brained as it is dangerous and illegal—however evil and unsavory the Iranian regime has proven itself to be? Historically, the motivation for foreign adventurism and military engagements can be understood best by way of the domestic political agenda of the lead-off belligerent. In the case of Trump, this could well be his declining approval ratings and the need for yet another major distraction.
Or, as Rachel Maddow suggests, Trump’s motivation could be his crass attachment to Big Pyrite and the connection between knee-capping the regime in Tehran and multi-billion-dollar Middle East “real estate deals” in partnership with the Saudis and Israelis.
Perhaps with this latest act of the Circus Clown in Chief, we have reached a proverbial inflection point in the Clown’s political fortunes—as well as those of his enablers in Congress. This afternoon a young man working a Door Dash gig appeared at our house to drop off a ladder-stairway for installation in our garage attic. I engaged him in conversation and soon found an opening to ask what he thought about the latest news. He unloaded his entire political agenda along with the ladder-stairway. I learned much from this well-informed, earnest but financially struggling young voter. In combination, his views produced what I thought was a political conundrum: they were neither consistently left nor consistently right, which didn’t mean he was centrist either. He liked neither Republicans nor Democrats, but he was stridently anti-ICE[1]. When it came to war against Iran, he was vehemently opposed: “No one can predict where this will lead,” he said, “but why would Trump start a war at a time when I and so many of my friends are just trying to keep our heads above water. Despite my education, certifications, and willingness to work hard, this [Door Dash] is the best I can do.”
But Trump isn’t listening. He’s too busy as a classless clown running the circus.
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© 2026 by Eric Nilsson
[1] He said he’d been walking with a Latino friend—an American citizen—into a Target store, when ICE agents descended on them, knocked the friend to the ground and started beating him, to the shock and horror of everyone around.
