"We’re at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn’t know it," said Donald Trump as he kicked off his re-election campaign in January 2023.
It was the kind of fear-inducing pronouncement he had been making for years on social media, railing about the dangers of electing incompetent leaders, war-mongering with Iran, and the potential for a US President to mislead us into World War III.
Maybe he's a modern-day Nostradumbass.
Or maybe he just has a habit of projecting his own psychopathic impulses onto others.
Because today, Trump's most apocalyptic predictions have turned out to be incredibly accurate.
The only twist is that all of the times he falsely attacked Obama, Biden, and Harris for flaws he imagined them having or things he imagined they would do, it now turns out that the leadership inadequacies he described — and the reckless, self-motivated traits he described — have turned out to be Trump's own.
2011: “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate.”
Fifteen years before Trump started a war with Iran because he had absolutely no ability to negotiate, he predicted Obama would do the exact same thing just to win an election.
"Our president will start a war with Iran, because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate," Trump said in the 16 November, 2011 video. "He’s weak and he’s ineffective so the only way he figures he’s going to get re-elected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran."
"Isn't it pathetic?" said Trump that a President would attack Iran to save his political life
"Isn't it pathetic?" that a President would attack Iran to save his political life said Trump at the time, noting that "Iran can be taken down in many ways."
Trump repeated the claim in a 29 November 2011 tweet that read: "In order to get elected, Barack Obama will start a war with Iran."
In reality, even as Trump continued to tweet about Obama attacking Iran "to save face" or "to show how tough he is," Obama actually negotiated a comprehensive deal with Iran — signed in 2015 by the United States and Iran as well as China, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom — that prohibited Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The Obama deal was working incredibly well until Trump unilaterally (and pathetically) tore it up during his first term to show us how tough he is before getting scared and trying to put it back together.
2024: "We are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent 'leaders' in history"
In August 2024, Trump gave another uncanny preview of the future when he "Truthed" that, faced with a "crashing" stock market and "terrible" jobs numbers, two of the most "incompetent 'leaders' in history" were leading us into "World War III."
If it wasn't true then, it is now.
So credit where it's due. Throughout his career both as a racist internet troll and as a politician, Trump has been consistent about one thing: He's told us repeatedly that any president who attacks Iran must be weak, desperate, or politically motivated.
Judged by Trump's own standards:
- He's incompetent.
- He's ineffective.
- He's pathetic.
It's hard to argue that he's the most stupid president in history.
He keeps proving it every time he opens his mouth.
As he misleads us into ever-increasing dangers at home and abroad, he's become the president — and the existential threat — he's spent the past 15 years warning us about.
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