What did Donald Trump do today?

He decided that his "ceasefire" was over after two months of fire not being ceased.

The United States and Iran have been exchanging attacks for the past two days. Iran set at least two civilian oil and natural gas tankers on fire in the Persian Gulf, after which it and the United States traded attacks, with Iran claiming it had launched attacks against 85 different US targets in the region. 

Iran's government also once again closed the Strait of Hormuz, which had never reopened to more than 20% of its normal capacity, instantaneously spiking oil prices which had gradually been coming down.

In other words, it was a more or less typical weekday for the last three months of "ceasefire," which neither side has paid much attention to. But today, at the NATO summit, Trump admitted that the ceasefire he had unilaterally declared on April 7th was over.

It's not clear why these attacks, which were not appreciably worse than dozens of other tit-for-tat exchanges, was any different. Trump seemed dispirited and emotional, calling Iran's leaders "scum" and "vicious, violent people." 

It's not clear where this leaves the peace deal Trump had hoped to achieve in the 60-day period prescribed by the one-sided Memorandum of Understanding he signed last month. 

Trump spent today at the NATO summit in Turkey. He had been lashing out as usual at the United States' closest military allies, calling Spain a "wasted cause" and a "terrible partner" for not joining in on his war on Iran. He even "ordered" all trade with Spain stopped, which is not something he has any power to do.

But by the end of the day, after acknowledging the end of the "ceasefire," he seemed to try to mend fences with the United States' NATO allies—or, really, insist that they'd already been mended. 

He told reporters a "sir story" about how European heads of state told him behind closed doors how much they "love" him: "They said, ‘Sir, we love you.’ These are grown people saying that. Isn’t that nice?"

In reality, European leaders have spoken openly about a different strategy that was on display at the summit: ignoring and placating Trump as much as possible while quietly disengaging from the United States.

Why does this matter?

• This is the natural consequence of Trump's catastrophically inept attempt at a war. 

• Destroying our most important military and economic alliances for no reason makes the United States weaker and poorer.