Just 10 days ago Trump delivered what many called the most worthless State of the Union address in the nation’s history, devoid of policy proposals but that didn’t keep him from droning on and on with self-congratulations and past grievances. Four days later, U.S. warplanes were bombing Iran without consultation with Congress, without a UN Security Council resolution, without an explanation to the public and without laying any groundwork for a transition to a more peaceful nation.

It follows his haphazard policy of chaos that is at least partially devised to keep American voters from focusing on his failures, while he incessantly promotes his delusional strongman image.

It works for some MAGA supporters who have accepted his role as supreme leader, turned off any pretense of critical thinking, and support him as the cult figure he wants to be. Most of his cabinet, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, publicly fall into that category and are lap dogs to Trump’s whim. (Timothy Snyder writes a good explanation of Trump’s cult-like appeal in The Transitive Strongman.)

For everyone else, there’s reality.

Today’s reality is Trump immersed America in a war with no legitimate objective, no exit strategy and no plan to achieve any long-lasting gain. By his own admission, Trump said in a news interview this week that his worst-case scenario “would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person. Right? That could happen.”

When asked what his best-case scenario was, he didn’t have an answer. He admitted his second and third options to run the county were already gone. “Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Trump said in an NBC interview. “Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports. So, I guess you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”

The lack of planning by Trump and his team is staggering, as were the ever-changing reasons for launching the attack. First it was regime-change, then it was to prevent any attack on America’s interest because Israel was going to launch its campaign and Trump figured we’d might as well join in. Then it was to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before he killed Trump (as Trump alleged he was trying to do).

What do we know for certain? Not a lot because Trump’s actions are so mercurial, but we do know Trump’s egomania rules the day and whatever makes him look good and feel powerful will be high priority.

As American citizens, the difficulty is trying to focus on the reasons his actions either do or do not favor the nation’s best interests and keep those issues and reasons catalogued without being overwhelmed.

It seems forever ago, for instance, that the illegal and barbaric actions of ICE and CBP agents in Minneapolis sparked national outrage and concern for our democracy. But it was just a month ago that Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was murdered by ICE agents who shot him 10 times in the back at close range while he was pinned down by other agents. The week before Renee Good, a mother and poet, was shot in the face while in her car by an ICE agent at point blank range.

Trump is running from those scenes of national outrage as fast as he can.

Don’t let him. It’s the duty of American voters to hold Trump accountable for putting policies in place that violate individual rights and has turned law enforcement officers against its own citizens.

Ditto the Epstein files. As evidence gets closer and closer to tagging Trump as a knowing friend and perhaps participant of Epstein’s dealings, Trump seeks distractions — even if it means bombing Iran. American voters should keep the issue at the forefront and determine Trump’s, and others, proximity to those crimes.

But that’s the tip of the iceberg. In the past year Trump’s policies have destroyed much of the progress on creating a vibrant renewable energy economy that President Biden instituted. Health care benefits have been slashed, putting millions of middle-class Americans in grave danger or financial ruin. Vaccines to protect children against measles and other deadly diseases are being discontinued by wrong-headed polices in the face of scientific evidence proving their worth. And on and on.

So, too, with Trump’s illegal war with Iran. A bipartisan Congress must take back its authority to declare war — not leave it to an authoritarian to put the nation’s military resources into action without the consent of Congress. Here’s columnist David French, who fought in Iraq in 2007-08, on why the constitutional framework is so important to follow:

“The fundamental goal of the 1787 Constitution was to establish a republican form of government — and that meant disentangling the traditional powers of the monarch and placing them in different branches of government.

“When it came to military affairs, the Constitution separated the power to declare war from the power to command the military. The short way of describing the structure is that America should go to war only at Congress’ direction, but when it does, its armies are commanded by the president.

“Perhaps the most important aspect of this constitutional structure is that it creates a presumption of peace. Our nation cannot go to war until its leaders persuade a majority of Congress that war is in our national interest…. The constitutional structure, when followed… helps provide accountability. To make the case to Congress, a president doesn’t just outline the reasons for war; he also outlines the objectives of the conflict. This provides an opportunity to investigate the weaknesses of the case for the conflict, along with the possibility of success and the risks of failure…

“Now, many millions of Americans are bewildered by events. There is no national consensus around the decision to deploy Americans into harm’s way. There isn’t even a Republican consensus. There’s only a personal consensus, the personal consensus of a mercurial man so detached from reality that he actually reposted on Truth Social an article with the headline “Iran Tried to Interfere in 2020, 2024 Elections to Stop Trump, and Now Faces Renewed War With U.S…. Are Trump’s conspiracy theories making him more amenable to war?

“In 1848, at the close of the Mexican-American War, a first-term member of Congress named Abraham Lincoln wrote: ‘Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.’

“Those words were true then, and they’re true now. No matter what he thinks, Trump is not a king. But by taking America to war all on his own, he is acting like one.”

— Angelo Lynn