Trump’s Reversals Are Making Us Wonder Who Is in Charge Here

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

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June 17, 20255:54 PM

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Two stories in the news this week raise the question of who is currently in charge of the world’s most powerful country, the United States.

First, there’s the Wall Street Journal piece about how the U.S. government does not believe Israel’s claim that Iran is moving forward with an attempt to build a nuclear weapon:

Long story short, the U.S. didn’t support Israel’s military escalation against Iran because it doesn’t believe what Israel says about Iran’s nuclear plans. (In the New York Times’ phrasing, the U.S. “distanced itself from the strikes” via a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.)

Except that, as the Journal notes, Donald Trump now says that Iran is “very close” to building a nuclear weapon; Trump is also, according to multiple Tuesday reports, considering ordering the U.S. military to bomb the country too. What changed? Not a ton, at least as far as new intelligence, input from allies, or Iranian belligerence. It’s just that Trump, in the Times’ euphemistic description, has “cycled” to a different position, one on which he “continues to gyrate.” (Sounds beautiful, perhaps even alluring.) Does he know what his own position was a few days ago? Who can say! According to the Times’ report, which, euphemisms aside, is impressively detailed, Trump told “associates” last week that he had urged Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, not to attack Iran—only to begin telling reporters this week that he “had played a bigger behind-the-scenes role in the war than people realized.” (The paper suggests that the president’s change of heart may have come after he got excited watching footage of Israeli strikes on Fox News.)

In a similar vein, there is the Washington Post’s new report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have told agents to “continue conducting immigration raids at agricultural businesses, hotels and restaurants.” This reverses a directive not to target those venues that was itself issued last week, after Trump posted on his Truth Social site that ICE would back off farms and hotels because “very good, long time workers” were being detained. Compounding the confusion, the (new) Post report notes that the directive that was issued because of Trump’s post has been overruled because “the White House did not support it.” Who runs the White House? I thought it was the president!

These are things that have happened only this week. In late May, the State Department announced that it would be revoking visas issued to Chinese students in the U.S. who have “connections to the Chinese Communist Party” or study in “critical fields.” But last Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Chinese students using our colleges and universities” have “always been good with me.” What else might turn out to be American policy, or have been American policy already, unbeknownst to President Memento (2001, dir. Christopher Nolan) and/or the members of his Cabinet? It will be exciting to find out.

Who’s in charge of the government?