Trump's focus on ballroom project masks 'humiliating strategic defeat': analysis

President Donald Trump insists that polls showing him with low approval ratings are "fake news." But those polls are not outliers, and they show a pattern of widespread dissatisfaction with the president, according to critics.

In a Substack column published on April 29, economist Paul Krugman argues that the Iran war is only one of the problems confronting Trump — who, he stresses, is facing an array of problems all at once.

"Indeed, claiming victory tends to be hard when you've lost badly," Krugman says of the Iran war. "How long will it take before Trump accepts the reality that he doesn't have the cards — that in the end, his Iran venture will be resolved in a way that leaves Iran stronger and America weaker than before the war? Markets are growing increasingly pessimistic."

Trump, Krugman adds, keeps "losing" on multiple fronts — from the economy to alliances with foreign leaders.

"So, if the Strait (of Hormuz) doesn't reopen, prices will have to soar high enough — and inflict sufficient economic damage — to destroy another 11 or more million barrels a day of demand," Krugman explains. "That's a lot. But Trump is talking about his ballroom. This may seem weird, but it makes sense if you view it psychologically. Trump is clearly dissociating. His fragile sense of self-worth depends on constantly believing that he's a winner while others are losers. Now, he's faced with the reality that he, more or less single-handedly, led America to humiliating strategic defeat."

Krugman continues, "He's losing on other fronts, too. The fall of (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orbán was a big defeat for Trump. So, I'd argue, is the survival of Ukraine, which appears to be gradually gaining the upper hand over Putin's Russia despite Trump's attempt to betray our erstwhile ally. So, Trump is coping by tuning out the war he started, focusing on a grandiose, ego-boosting project that lets him assert dominance over servile Republicans and businesses that are footing the bill."

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