After being voted in on the swaggering, billionaire "I'll-get-it-done-at-any-cost" ticket Donald Trump is finding that running the most powerful country in the world is not like closing a business deal. In his short time in office, the Commander in Chief has lurched chaotically from one disastrous decision to another, leaving in his wake unfinished plans, ostracised minorities and a puzzled electorate.
The problem in Syria
The president was decisive enough when it came to unleashing fifty-plus Tomahawk missiles onto Syria after Assad used chemical weapons on his own people in one of the bloodiest civil wars in history.
But that decision meant his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had to endure a fraught meeting with Vladimir Putin, Syria's ally, in an attempt to get Russia to distance themselves from Assad's regime. The result is that trump now says relations between the US and Russia ' have reached a low point,' which may well be the understatement of the year.
The detonation of MOAB in Afghanistan
As if the sabre rattling and antagonising of Russia were not enough Trump followed this up by giving the green light to the detonation of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) on Thursday 13th April. Only 15 MOAB's have been built and it is so powerful that the last time the US detonated anything of this magnitude, it was in Nagasaki to effectively end WW2.
The attack was supported by the Afghan government in its' continued fight against Islamic State and destroyed a network of tunnels and caves meant to support the movement of IS troops.
Provocation of North Korea
With Syria, Russia and Islamic State and suitably antagonised Trump was not prepared to stop there as he then took on another dictator in the form of North Korea's Kim Jong-Un.
In a series of increasingly aggressive tweets the president accused China of " taking money and wealth from the US in a totally one-sided trade", then accusing China of not being prepared to help with the problem of North Korea and finally in his most incendiary tweet that "If North Korea is looking for trouble...we will solve the problem without them(China)." He then sanctioned sending an 'Armada' of US warships to North Korea.
Kim Jong-Un is not a leader to be trifled with and sees Trump's threat as a direct challenge and vows a " merciless response" to any US provocation.
What next for Trump?
What is clear is that the administration is provocative and highly volatile. The president is a businessman, not a politician. He has scant regard for debate and diplomacy and sees aggression as a suitable way to end any threats. It is also clear that however powerful the US army is, it cannot fight on three fronts simultaneously in Syria, North Korea and Afghanistan and yet President Trump seems to be leading his country headlong into conflict on three fronts, one of which in particular with North Korea could have catastrophic consequences across the world.
