Trump’s war in Iran appears to be heading for a T.S. Eliot ending — not with a bang, but a whimper. But not right away. Someday, though, it will just whimper out.

This week Trump has gone from deciding to just ignore the war for a while, to claiming that the Strait of Hormuz is under U.S. control. Objective reality at the Strait appears to suggest otherwise.

Yesterday Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait, and “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT.” Today Tehran announced that the Strait of Hormuz is “under Iran’s control and management.” (I understand the potential deal for a joint operation with Oman fell apart over details. A shame.)

But maybe Trump should stick to just ignoring the war. Did he think people would believe  him when he said the U.S. controls the Strait? Because anybody following the news knows that’s not true. This is not something a halfway rational person would have claimed.

Trump has few options left. The depletion of our weapons is putting our military personnel deployed to the region in greater danger.

Shrunken inventories of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors may force the US and its Middle Eastern allies to take greater risks to conserve those air defences, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. For example, it said, American forces may launch fewer missiles against incoming Iranian drones and missiles, raising the chance of one getting through.

The Pentagon now is pushing the defense industry to crank out more missiles as fast as possible. But I understand the high tech stuff takes several months, maybe a couple of years, to be ready to use.  Trump isn’t gong to get his big stockpile back anytime soon.

You’ve probably heard about what’s been going on with the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The aircraft carrier has been at sea way too long. The crew is burned out. Families are reporting that the crew isn’t getting enough to eat. There are sewage and other sanitation problems with the ship. Recently several crew members have attempted to jump overboard, and one actually did (he survived). Naturally Pete Hegseth has been brushing off these issues as no big deal. Then several Democrats in Congress made noises about an investigation. Today it was announed that the U.S.S. George Washington would be relieving the Abraham Lincoln.

These bozos had better not start World War III, because none of them can manage their way out of a rusty mess kit. Under Hegseth it’s not the Department of War but the Department of What the Bleep Are We Doing?.

But as there aren’t many options left I’m predicting the war will just whimper along as a low-grade hostility until Trump leaves office. Let’s just hope no one else has to die for it.

And I have nothing original to say about Operation Catering Truck, so I’ll just quote this bit from Heather Cox Richardson:

National security reporter David Rothkopf wrote: “The man who cowered hiding from the Iranians in a catering truck and who has personally done more to increase Iran’s strategic influence than anyone in its own government ever has, is now blathering nonsense via social media. The world sees him more as an impotent fool today than ever before.”

In other news, but related:

The first news story I saw this morning was headlined Homeland Security Paid $464 Million for Airplanes. Then It Parked Them. This is a gift article from the New York Times.

Starting last fall, the Department of Homeland Security spent $464 million on a no-bid contract to buy 10 used airplanes from a firm in Northern Virginia.

That was an enormous price tag, but the department said it had no time to consider other offers. The planes were needed urgently for deportation flights.

But since then, the department has barely used this new fleet — for deportations, or anything else.

Apparently the agency doesn’t have the staff to operate the plans.

The contract also illuminated a broader trend within the second Trump administration: no-bid contracts awarded to people with connections to Mr. Trump or his cabinet secretaries. The company that received this contract, Daedalus Aviation Corporation, is led by a chairman who had donated to a political committee supporting the previous Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem. …

… The situation with the planes was reminiscent of the department’s about-face on a plan to acquire warehouses to hold detainees. The department spent heavily on those when Ms. Noem was secretary, but reversed itself just months later under Mr. Mullin. The department is now giving away or selling seven warehouses that it bought for more than $700 million.

I remember reading that the agency was offering amounts way above the market price for those warehouses. Yet The Gnome was the same person who caused huge delays in releasing disaster relief funds by insisting on new layers of review, creating a $17 billion bottleneck. .

And then there’s Trump, spending taxpayer money lavishly on his monuments projects and on covering perfectly presentable statues in gold leaf while we can’t afford health care. But I’m beginning to think even Americans who don’t pay attention to politics are starting to notice something is very screwy. And a big part of that screwiness is that the people in charge of critical government departments are grossly unqualified for their jobs. The Gnome is gone, but I don’t see the overall situation improving

And I honestly don’t think Trump is living in the same time-space continuum as the rest of us.

And you’ve probably heard Karoline Leavitt is leaving at the end of this month. I can’t get too excited because I’m sure whoever replaces her will be just as bad. But I am mildly curious as to why, since she just heroically came back from having a baby, her second child. I certainly appreciate how hard that is. But she’s the one who came back. Maybe there’s another reason. Well, someday somebody will write a book and spill the beans.

Oh one more thing. See Kennedy Center Board Decides to Inscribe Trump’s Name on Building. Seriously.