Cartoon  by Jimmy Margulies

Trump might have threatened war with Iran

Vox: Over the past two days, the US president changed his mind about whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. He fumed privately about the lack of progress in talks with North Korea. And he threatened Iran with potential war.

It was just another remarkable weekend in the President Donald Trump era.

Starting on Sunday morning, Trump repeatedly bashed former President Barack Obama for failing to stop Russia’s election interference. He then proceeded to call it “all a big hoax,” implying that he didn’t believe Moscow attacked America’s electoral system. But just last week, Trump said he accepted the US intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled during the 2016 presidential election.

On Sunday morning, the Washington Post reported that Trump was unhappy his administration has come no closer to convincing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arsenal. That undermines his public stance: As recently as last Tuesday, he said discussions with North Korea “are ongoing and they’re going very well.”

Late on Sunday night, as most people were close to sleep, Trump jolted them awake with an all-caps threat to Iran on Twitter. “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” Trump tweeted. His statement was likely meant as a response to what Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said earlier on Sunday, that “war with Iran is the mother of all wars” but also that “peace with Iran is the mother of all peace.”

If you missed any of this because you wanted to enjoy a politics-free weekend, no worries. We’ll get you back up to speed.

Trump called Russia’s election interference a “hoax”

Last Monday, Trump shocked the world by siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said that Moscow didn’t meddle in the 2016 presidential election. The US president then spent the rest of the week trying to walk that back, insisting that, yes, he actually believed the US intelligence community when it says Russia interfered.

He undid all that work in a Sunday tweet: "So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election. Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!"

Let’s unpack this, shall we?

When Trump complains that Obama didn’t stop Russian interference, he is admitting that Russia meddled in the election. That would seem to put him on the side of the US intelligence community.

But his next sentence is where it all breaks down: “Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!” That’s quite the contradiction. Trump is now effectively saying, “Russia totally interfered and bad on Obama for not stopping it, but it’s actually all a hoax anyway.”

The cognitive dissonance caught the attention of certain conservative commentators.

As for Trump’s oft-repeated complaint that Obama didn’t do anything about Russia’s interference: The Obama administration did take some measures — including privately telling Moscow officials to stop and also telling journalists that Russia stole emails from Hillary Clinton and other Democrats — but it clearly didn’t do enough to stop the Kremlin’s behavior.

It’s possible what Trump really means is that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia is a hoax, or at least a “witch hunt.” That would make sense, since Trump has repeatedly stated this opinion.

But in this case, it looks like Trump has once again brushed aside the conclusions of his intelligence community — firmly putting him back in Putin’s camp, who says that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump is angry he’s made little to no progress with North Korea

Mere hours after his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, Trump tweeted, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”

A month later, he seems much less optimistic.

According to a Sunday story in the Washington Post, Trump is upset that high-level talks with North Korea have failed to convince the country to dismantle its nuclear program and seem to be going nowhere.

“Diplomats say the North Koreans have canceled follow-up meetings, demanded more money and failed to maintain basic communications, even as the once-isolated regime’s engagements with China and South Korea flourish,” write John Hudson, Josh Dawsey, and Carol Leonnig.

It’s yet another signal that North Korea isn’t serious about giving up its nuclear arsenal. Here’s just one example: Earlier this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang for the third time to continue talks about dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program. Pompeo went, in part, because North Korea promised him a meeting with Kim. But Kim never showed — and opted to visit a potato farm instead.

People familiar with Pompeo’s discussion with the North Korean politician who did show, top official Kim Yong Chol, said the North Koreans “were just messing around” and “not serious about moving forward.” The meeting went “as badly as it could have gone,” the source told CNN on July 11 >>>