Donald Trump’s press secretary recently claimed that the President is always the best-read person in the room. It was a comment that set off some eye-rolling – but Karoline Leavitt was likely referring to Trump’s voracious appetite for television news and social media.
It’s a habit that likely made Friday a sobering day for him: when fresh US economic data paved the way for difficult headlines.
“Inflation soars to 3.3 per cent in March,” screamed The Wall Street Journal. “A record jump in US gasoline prices is squeezing consumers,” added The New York Times.
Six weeks ago, Trump’s boast about falling petrol prices was the centrepiece of his televised State of the Union Address. It was a speech lasting 107 minutes, in which he turned to Iran for roughly three minutes near the end.
Since then, Trump’s world – and pretty much everyone else’s – has been turned upside down. Now, the US-Israeli war on Iran is all-consuming, as are the dire economic consequences that it has unleashed.
No wonder, then, that Americans want out. In a recent Ipsos poll, 66 per cent said they wanted the US to end its involvement in the conflict quickly, even if all of the goals are not achieved, compared with 27 per cent who are keen for Trump to push on.
As the domestic pressure increased, so have Trump’s frustrations. This has been most visible through his increasingly angry Truth Social posts. On Friday, he hit out at what he called the “Fake News Media” and the Iranians, who he claimed had “no cards” (apart from their crippling “short-term extortion of the world” via the Strait of Hormuz).
That followed his truly astonishing expletive-ridden Truth Social post a week ago, where he used the F-word and called the Iranians “bastards”. My 13-year-old son, watching the news on television, turned to me and said: “Surely the President didn’t say that!?”
This was echoed across the political spectrum in Washington DC, and that mood of shock only heightened when Trump claimed that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will”.
Some have described Trump casually warning that he was ready to wipe out an entire country and its culture as a “genocidal” threat. Dafna Rand, a former diplomat who sat on Barack Obama’s national security council and was assistant secretary of state under Joe Biden, told me the language from the President was unprecedented and that the threats, if acted on, would be entirely illegal.
A key part of my job is to act as a Trump watcher, spending hours every day watching and analysing the President’s behaviour. There is no question that he has become more erratic in recent weeks; that the frustration and anger he is feeling is bubbling up to the surface and causing him to lash out. It is not new for Trump to attack his enemies, but he is doing it more intensely and frequently – and there are moments that increasingly dissolve into the bizarre.
On Sunday he lashed out against the Pope, calling him “WEAK on Crime and terrible for Foreign Policy”.
Donald Trump, standing next to the Easter Bunny, during the 2026 White House Easter Egg Roll (Photo: Nathan Howard/Reuters)In television news we are constantly looking for ways to use what we are seeing in front of us to tell a larger story. The most striking recent day for me was the White House Easter egg roll. To see the US President emerge from inside the White House next to a waving Easter bunny only moments before launching into a tirade against Iran and how his negotiating tactics are being reported on – all in front of an utterly confused audience of primary school students – was something to behold.
It’s fair to say that it was a unique moment in world history. At the time, I told our audience: “America and its 47th president had walked through the looking glass,” a reference to Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.
There is now a frantic mood in the White House. More of us journalists are now cramming into the briefing room each day, to witness what will happen next. You can see the increasing frustration for Leavitt as she looks to justify what Trump is saying. Meanwhile, the President knows the impact that every word he utters can have. Recently – standing in a pack of journalists by the White House south lawn and under the roar of Marine One – I was struck by how casually he flung out criticism of previously allied world leaders.
Anushka Asthana says there is a more frantic mood at the White House (Photo: Channel 4 News)To see how out of step Trump and his administration is right now, you only need to look at footage of former US presidents at moments of crisis. Franklin D Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, John F Kennedy’s declaration that “our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right” during the Cuban missile crisis, and even George HW Bush’s address during Operation Desert Storm: “Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq. It is the liberation of Kuwait.”
Some have described these moments as masterclasses of statesmanship, and they couldn’t contrast more starkly with Trump’s increasingly erratic statements.
The President will likely say he is proud to speak in a different way to his predecessors – and can point to two election wins to highlight his appeal to many American voters. But what will it mean for the US’s reputation going forward?
Trump’s approach in recent weeks has caused many to worry about his mental health and a conflict that has global implications. But when asked about the President’s recent language during a press briefing, Leavitt claimed that it was a tactic that had caused the Iranian regime to “cave to their knees”.
Many would disagree. The Iranian regime has so far refused to give in to the US’s greater military might, and the global economy is suffering as a result. Trump’s increasingly unpredictable outbursts point instead to a President who isn’t getting his own way – and is struggling to find a way out of the mess he has created.
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