The Trump Blunder Pattern

I’m writing for The Big Picture substack today, which I do once a week as part of a team of writers. As the name implies, I use the opportunity to step back and take stock of the broader and often confusing political landscape we’re now in. It’s a great complement to my deeper daily dives here at The Status Kuo. You can sign up below to get my Big Picture column in your inbox each week.

My own work there is offered for free without a paywall, but we do always appreciate paid supporters who make our work possible, and paid subscribers receive bonus material such as our guest columns, our Friday summary of the top news stories of the week and our popular Sunday round-up of the “week in wins.”

Today’s topic for my column is Trump blunders. We’re in a monumental one right now in Iran, with no clear or easy end in sight. But if it follows the pattern he’s set with his past mistakes (I examine three of his biggest ones: DOGE, Liberation Day tariffs and the ICE surge), we can make an intelligent assessment of how this is likely to go in Iran.

I get that it’s a bit of a pain to subscribe to two different newsletters in order to read all of my writings. But The Big Picture is something I began with my team and I’m quite proud of, and if you’re not already subscribed, I hope you’ll find our insights there valuable and clarifying.

I’ll be off tomorrow in meetings all day at the Human Rights Campaign in D.C., but back with Skeets and Giggles on Saturday!

Jay