What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to take credit for a ceasefire he'd had nothing to do with, and that didn't work anyway.

In recent weeks, India and Pakistan—two nuclear powers with a long history of bad blood between them—have been edging closer to open warfare. The two countries have traded missile and air attacks, taking tensions to a level not seen in decades.

Today, two notable things happened with respect to that conflict.

First, Trump made this announcement on his private microblogging site just before 8 A.M.:

After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

This came as news to India, which immediately denied that the Trump administration was involved at all.

 
In other words, what appears to have happened is that Trump got word of an impending ceasefire through normal channels and immediately took credit for it, trying to pass off whatever routine diplomatic contact had happened in the last few days as some kind of masterpiece of negotiation.

Some context here is important. Trump, who regards himself as the consummate dealmaker described in his ghostwritten autobiographies, has been infuriated by his own inability to broker a peace between Ukraine and Russia. His main strategy has been to pressure Ukraine to accept terms favorable to the Putin regime he's tied to, but neither country is especially interested—Ukraine because it would be national suicide, and Russia because it believes it can win the war outright now that Trump has effectively switched the United States' side in the war.

The second thing of note that happened today was that the ceasefire Trump is taking credit for immediately fell apart. Both sides have resumed strikes and are blaming the other for violating the ceasefire first.

Trump has not moved as quickly to shoulder any responsibility for the collapse of the peace he wants people to believe he brought about.

Why does this matter?

• It's wrong to take credit for things you didn't do.
  

• It's stupid to take credit for things that would reflect poorly on you if you'd been involved.
  

• "Get Donald Trump a good headline" should not be the priority of the United States government when two nuclear powers are heading towards war.