Look closely, behind Trump's f-bomb and fury, and you can see what he really wants
Washington: Donald Trump's spinners like to say he is the most transparent president in US history. It depends on what you mean by transparent – he is certainly accessible, and talks non-stop. In the past 24 hours, he has posted or re-posted on his Truth Social website more than 60 times.
It's often assumed there's little veneer about Trump: what you see is what you get. It's why so many voters like him, even some who hate his policies. Unlike most politicians regurgitating talking points or trying hard to say nothing at all, he presents as the genuine article.
But on Tuesday we got a glimpse of another level of realness. Worked up and probably sleep-deprived – he said he'd been up all night watching cable news – Trump lashed out at Israel and Iran for violating the ceasefire he declared 12 or so hours earlier.
'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f--- they're doing,' he said. 'Do you understand that?'
It's not that Trump is a churchy type who never swears. He would regularly tell campaign rallies something was 'bullshit', and in a closed-door meeting with Republicans last month about the budget, instructed them: 'Don't f--- with Medicaid.'
But it was different to direct such a tirade in public at a special US ally, Israel, which he claims to support more than any of his predecessors – no mean feat.
Trump's rage extended to the cable news networks CNN and MSNBC, which he accused of questioning or playing down the success of his bombing campaign on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The reality is that we don't know the extent of the damage. CNN and The New York Times now report that a preliminary Defence assessment indicates Iran's nuclear ambitions have only been set back 'months'. Trump wants us to take his word for it that they've been 'completely and totally obliterated'.
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