The New York Times Finally Has "Fresh Doubts" About Trump's Diplomacy

[Kid Berwyn]

A wise man makes clear — for the record — what one of the nation’s most important news organization has missed.



The New York Times Finally Has “Fresh Doubts” About Trump’s Diplomacy

MELVIN GOODMAN
CounterPunch, March 31, 2026

Fifteen months into the worst presidency in American history, the New York Times has finally acknowledged that Donald Trump’s war with Iran has “tested the limits of his unorthodox diplomatic style,” and raised “fresh doubt about his freestyle tactics.” While the Times prides itself on reporting “All the News That is Fit to Print,” it has spent more than a year downplaying the unfit personnel appointed to national security positions, the policies that have seriously damaged relations with key allies, and the destruction of any responsible national security process.

Even before Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, it was obvious that men and women were being appointed to key national security positions they were not fit to occupy. While former senator Marco Rubio might have appeared qualified, he has used his positions as secretary of state and national security adviser to strengthen Trump’s campaign to deport activist foreign students studying at American universities. Since his appointment, the Department of State has played no role in key diplomatic matters.

Nearly all of our key international issues have been managed, indeed mismanaged, by two billionaire real estate operatives, Steve Wytkoff and Jared Kushner, who have earned the United States no credibility or respect in the global community. Vice President J.D. Vance has defended the work of Wytkoff and Kushner, explaining that it “turns out a lot of diplomacy boils down to a simple skill: don’t be an idiot.” Rubio contends that he is unbothered by the heavy diplomatic responsibilities of Wytkoff and Kushner because “they check in with him regularly.” Rubio doesn’t mention that the two tycoons are negotiating business deals as they travel!

When national security adviser Michael Waltz added a journalist to a private and sensitive internet chat that discussed U.S. military strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, he was soon replaced by Rubio. Rubio proved he could run the National Security Council (in addition to the Department of State) into the ground in no time. Half the staff members of the NSC were quickly dispatched because a right-wing conspiracist, Laura Loomer, warned Trump that they were not loyal to the president. The State Department and the National Security Council, our most important national security entities, have played no role in deciding or even implementing policy regarding the war with Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the war between Israel and Palestine.

Meanwhile, several dozen U.S. embassies remain with no ambassador at the helm, including five nations that are involved in the war with Iran. Key ambassadorial positions have been vacant since January 2025 in Europe (including Germany), South America (including Brazil), the Pacific (including South Korea), the Middle East (Egypt and Iraq), Southwest Asia (Pakistan), and even Russia. A convicted felon, Charles Kushner, is the ambassador to France; a Christian evangelist (Mike Huckabee) is ambassador to Israel; and two right-wing propagandists have ambassadorial posts in Belgium and Poland.

Continues…

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/31/the-new-york-times-finally-has-fresh-doubts-about-trumps-diplomacy/

[malaise]

1. The truth

The ignorant buffoons are in charge

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Don putting the "con" in "conjuror" while minions make bank.

[gab13by13]

2. The NY Times still doesn't get it

Krasnov went to war with Iran because Saudi Arabia and the UAE paid him a big sum of money to invade.

Krasnov does what's best for Krasnov.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. The Paper of War

NYT seems to miss the boat and the big picture.



DU from 2014:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10024972163

[Blues Heron]

3. either trump goes or this keeps getting worse, it's that simple.

Last edited Tue Mar 31, 2026, 09:46 AM - Edit history (1)

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Absolutely. And what NYT should cover.

While Jared and Witkoff look at R.O.I., Trump is a nutjob vying to be G.O.A.T.

On the way down, no one notices that if someone “needs” to drop the Bomb to prevent Iran from overrunning the “battlefield,” the next one dropped would likely end Israel. Soon after that, of course, comes the big kerfluffle and “On the Beach” Time.

[Blues Heron]

11. Giving a psycho the codes really is too much

[Kid Berwyn]

14. GOP wants to pay for war by kicking 300,000 Americans off healthcare.

GOP May Kick 300,000 More Off Healthcare to Help Find $200 Billion for Trump’s Iran War

“Republicans in Congress want to cut Americans’ healthcare to pay for more war in Iran. Let that sink in.”

by Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams, March 30, 2026

“Republicans won’t think twice about *literally* sacrificing you to get their way.”

That’s how Democrats on the US House Ways and Means Committee responded to Axios’ Monday reporting on congressional Republicans considering more healthcare cuts to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s request for $200 billion to continue partnering with Israel for an unconstitutional war on Iran—including a potential ground invasion.

Other critics said:

* “Is this America First?”

* “You know who isn’t losing their government subsidized healthcare over this war that their government started? Israelis.”

* “Republicans would rather set money on fire than try to help a single American see a doctor.”

* “Cutting healthcare to pay for another regime change war in the Middle East. It’s like GOP want to lose in November.”

* “Are they calling this strategy Project Blue Wave?”

* “This should surprise no one: MAGA wants to pay for a war that no one wants by chipping away at your healthcare.”

Michael Hardaway, a geopolitical strategist who has worked for top Democrats, argued that they “must convert this into a House AND Senate majority in November,” noting that Republicans “took healthcare away from millions of Americans to pay for tax cuts for the 1%.”

Continues...

https://www.commondreams.org/news/200-billion-to-iran

Seems to be a pattern, all the death and misery, that even the most desk-bound journalist would notice, were it not for the "oil-soaked, spy-riddled" monopolistic ownership.

[tanyev]

4. "his unorthodox diplomatic style"

Uh…you mean using threats, bribes and insults until he gets whatever he wants, NYT? Yes, so diplomatic.



😒

[malaise]

7. Communications schools at more than a few

universities and colleges have been abysmal failures.
In an honest world they’d call him a lying dumb ass raving lunatic

[Kid Berwyn]

10. Truly Orwellian

All the fits, that’s news to print!



The NYT Times Continues to Normalize Trump

MELVIN GOODMAN
CounterPunch, March 25, 2026

“This is in a way the anger presidency. Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Mr. Trump is not the first president with a temper. Even the genial Dwight D. Eisenhower was known to be sharp behind closed doors. Lyndon B. Johnson’s tantrums were Texas size. Richard M. Nixon seemed to be on a medium boil for most of his nearly six years in office.” (Peter Baker, The New York Times, March 17, 2026, Front Page.)

The mainstream media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post continue to normalize Donald Trump by applying everyday terms to his personality and his presidency. He has been called an “isolationist,” a “neo-isolationist,” and currently an “imperialist.” Peter Baker, who has been covering the White House for the past several decades, now believes that it is “anger” that defines the Trump presidency. These descriptions normalize the Trump presidency and avoid the rages that are unique to Donald Trump.

Two terms that make the Trump presidency unique in American history are “megalomania” and “pathological narcissism.” I discussed his “megalomania” several weeks ago, emphasizing his extreme obsession with power, wealth, and self-importance. In the past year, Trump has used military force in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, West Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the eastern Pacific. He has threatened attacks on Colombia, Denmark, Canada, and now Cuba is in his crosshairs. The joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility points to the risks that Trump will assume. Trump is also threatening to use the centuries-old Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. troops in American cities, namely sanctuary cities, perhaps to compromise America’s elections later this year.

Not even megalomania and pathological narcissism accounts for Trump’s hyper-aggressive acts. His rages go far beyond the tempers of other presidents. His rage causes him to pursue hostile actions against those who have slighted him or have failed to do what he wants them to do.
Now, Trump’s pathological narcissism, a hard-to-treat personality disorder, is on full display.

Trump is intoxicated by praise and, as a result, his closest aides must constantly show fealty by engaging in false flattery. Even heads of state have joined this parade, expressing exaggerated praise in order to gain favor. The most recent example was Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who had to endure an obnoxious reference to Pearl Harbor and surprise attacks, but managed to credit Trump with trying to secure peace around the globe. Diplomatic norms mean nothing to Trump.

Continues…

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/25/the-nyt-times-continues-to-normalize-trump/

[tanyev]

15. That is a great article, too. Thanks.

[ananda]

8. Wow, Bosch's The Conjurer

So...

How many people have frogs jumping out of
their mouths these days?

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Going from current events, it must be a large majority.

There’s nothing like Bosch. Those who’ve been to the Prado, know. Please let me know your thoughts on the artist, his works, and when The Conjuror is again on view.

DECEPTION AND MISDIRECTION: HIERONYMUS BOSCH’S THE CONJUROR

By Philip McCouat
The Journal of Art in Society

Excerpt…

The centre of the painting is dominated by the wooden table. This divides the trickster (on our right) and the onlookers, on our left. The trickster, in a red cloak with black top hat reminiscent of a circus ringmaster, is holding up a shining little ball between his thumb and forefinger. Hanging from his belt is a wicker basket with what looks like an inquisitive owl poking its head up. The trickster’s expression is, to my eyes, rather sly, and he has a slight smirk (Fig 2). His large nose is hooked, a feature traditionally associated with Jews in medieval painting but, by Bosch’s time, more likely a general reference to deceit, equating moral and physical crookedness [3]. At the trickster’s feet is a small dog, dressed in what appears to be a joker’s outfit.

The onlookers represent a cross-section of the public. Notably they include a nun, with her white cowl, and a well-dressed patrician lady whose companion’s hand rests on her shoulder as he points to something, possibly the actions of the thief [4].
​
Bent over the table, with eyes fixed on the trickster is the dupe, a person of indeterminate gender [5], who is vomiting out what close examination reveals is a glistening dark frog (Fig 3). Drool drips down the dupe’s front. A child crouches at the dupe’s feet, toy whirligig in hand, looking up at the dupe with an expression of bemusement at his/her folly and, maybe, of the credulousness of the other adults.

On the extreme left is a spectacled man in a monk-like outfit with a white robe, black jerkin and a brown headdress. He is staring over-innocently up into the sky (or maybe pretending he is blind), as he surreptitiously cuts the dupe’s purse from his belt. Interestingly, he closely resembles the art-fancier in Pieter Bruegel's later The Painter and the Connoisseur (c 1565) [5a].

On the table are two small white upturned containers (one with a small ball on top), a larger brass container, two more balls, a wand, and another frog, which presumably has been previously vomited up by the dupe. A round hoop rests against the front of the table, presumably intended for performing tricks with the dog.

In the background is a high dark wall, ill-kempt, with weeds growing on it, under a glowering sky which gives a claustrophobic effect to the whole scene. At the top left is an obscure circular window, with an indistinct image of a crane perched, looking upwards. There is little else in this background to distract our attention from the action of the trickster.

Continues…

https://www.artinsociety.com/deception-and-misdirection-hieronymus-boschrsquos-the-conjuror-248552.html

PS: Do you enjoy the work of Remedios Varo?

[ananda]

13. Well, I've always found Bosch interesting and mesmerizing.

Him and Brueghel.

I just think The Conjurer is very apt for what is going on
with Republican fools these days.

Frogs jumping out of the mouth of the central character
represent the extent to which the victim let go of reason
and gave in to bestial impulses.[8] -- Wiki