What did Donald Trump do today?

He blockaded a blockade. 

This morning, having abandoned "peace" negotiations with Iran after less than a day, Trump announced that he, too, would blockade the Persian Gulf. He also claimed that the US Navy would interdict any vessel that paid Iran's toll, although he didn't say how he'd know which ones those were, or what would happen afterwards. In fact, as is often the case, it's difficult to tell whether Trump knew what he was saying at all. Military seizure of a Russian or Indian or Chinese-flagged ship would instantly change the character of the war.

Unlike most of the war up to this point, there is at least a theoretically valid military justification for blockading Iran. It might make it harder for Iran to resupply weapons or other militarily useful materials, or to raise money by exporting its own products. But Trump's blockade isn't complete, and can't be: Iran has shipping channels via the Caspian Sea with its main trading partner Russia, as well as overland routes through friendly countries bordering it, including Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

 

The result is that Trump is simply adding to the effectiveness of Iran's near-complete closure of the Persian Gulf. Not only will this hurt the rest of the world more than it hurts Iran for the foreseeable future, it also undoes what little relief Trump had won for oil prices by taking the unprecedented (and humiliating) action of dropping sanctions against Iranian oil exports in the middle of a war against it.

Trump, who attended a UFC match in Florida last night while negotiations collapsed, has once again remained hidden from the press today. His only brief comments came as he arrived in DC, insisting that "other nations" were joining the US in trying to prevent the sale of Iranian oil. As is often the case when Trump claims international support for one of his plans, he was unable to say exactly which other nations were involved.

Still, it is possible to see this as a positive development. A blockade is easier to back down from than a ground invasion, both in terms of the level of military commitment and the amount of public scrutiny it would receive. The main obstacle that the United States has been facing in extricating itself from the debacle of the Iran attacks has been Trump's own unwillingness to admit he's made a mistake.

Oil and gas prices were once again up sharply on the news.

Why does this matter?

• The safety and stability of Americans, and for that matter everyone else, is more important than Donald Trump's ego.