So they finally did it. Of all the dumb, pointless wars the United States has waged in the Middle East, the one it launched today against Iran may go down as the dumbest and most pointless. This is a war that didn’t need to happen; even the man waging it doesn’t seem to know why he launched it.

Of course it was Trump who launched this war. Trump, the “peacemaker.” Trump, the “dealmaker in chief.” Trump, whose political ascent was built on attacking George W. Bush’s destructive war on Iraq; who warned incessantly his political opponent would start a war with Iran.

Trump’s entire MO this term has been to do the exact opposite of what he promised people he would do, whether trampling free speech and escalating internet censorship or gutting Medicaid and Social Security and making people’s lives more expensive. Now he can add embroiling the United States in yet another bloody Middle East war to that list, the latest middle finger to the voters who may not have liked everything the president said or stood for but earnestly thought he would at least keep this one promise.