Trump's Sunday Bluster, "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!"

Plus: A (very long) week in review.

Charlie Sykes

Apr 19, 2026

Catching up this morning:

Trump is back to threatening to blow up the “whole country” unless Iran signs a peace deal. “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!,” he posted on Truth Social, blustering (again) that he will “knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”
DJT is really going to hate this piece in the Wall Street Journal: “Behind Trump’s Public Bravado on the War, He Grapples With His Own Fears”
He is veering between belligerent and conciliatory approaches and grappling behind the scenes with just how badly things could go wrong.
At the same time, the president sometimes loses focus, spending time on the details of his plans for the White House ballroom or on midterm fundraisers—and telling advisers he wants to shift to other topics.
[And there’s the dazzling detail]
:
Still, he has made risky pronouncements without input from his national security team—including his post about plans to destroy the Iranian civilization—saying seeming unstable could help spur the Iranians to negotiate.
At one point he even mused he should award himself the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor.
Matt Labash sums up Trump’s handling of the Iran war to date:
Trump’s entire Iran War, or “Little Excursion” as he prefers, has felt a bit like watching a man amputate his own arm, then affixing some Velcro to the end of his bloody stump, while insisting, “See! It picks things up just as good as it used to!” Trump might call this a victory. And being the Premature-Ejaculator-In-Chief, he already has.
But most reality-based types would call it self-mutilation: congratulating yourself for (potentially) solving problems that you caused. Though we’re still paying over four dollars a gallon for gas, which will ripple throughout the entire economy on the back end. So guess what? Problem not solved. Sorry, Stable Genius, but you don’t get to blow a hole in our hull, then expect to get a medal for being a strong swimmer as the ship goes down.
Poll: Trump's approval rating hits second-term low as Americans sour on the economy and Iran war
Overall, 37% of adults approve of Trump’s performance as president, while 63% disapprove — including 50% who said they disapprove strongly — putting his job rating at the lowest point of his second term in NBC News Decision Desk polling. Two-thirds of respondents also disapproved of Trump’s handling of inflation and the Iran conflict.