What did Donald Trump do today?

He told Iran he was at its mercy politically. 

In a post to his private microblogging website today, Trump announced that he would not launch any attacks against Iran until after the midterm elections on November 3. 

It's unlikely Iran will take that promise seriously: in his attempts to undo the damage the war has done, he's unilaterally declared and abandoned ceasefires several times. 

But by explicitly tying the Iran War to the midterms, Trump is essentially validating Iran's strategy of outlasting him until he can pay a political price. Republican majorities in Congress have—narrowly and reluctantly —struck down attempts to rein in Trump's authority to act against Iran. Trump's inability to extricate himself from the conflict now in its eighth month has been both a national embarrassment and a political nightmare for his party.

In other words, it looks like the best Trump thinks he can do now is promise not to draw further attention to the situation, and hope that the oil and stock markets rebound a little in the meantime.

Trump's post also claimed, as he usually does when addressing the Iran fiasco, that shipping has resumed through the Strait of Hormuz. In reality, because Iran continues to be able to target ships at will with missiles and sea drones, it dropped this week to a two-month low and remains well below prewar levels.

Why does this matter?

• A competent commander-in-chief wouldn't give the enemy useful information like this.

• It should not be possible to botch a war this badly.