Situation Room

Maybe Trump could finally close the Iran deal he’s been promising is “just days away” for the better part of two months if he weren’t so busy auditioning fabrics for ballroom drapes and debating whether the crystal chandeliers should say “gaudy real estate baron” or “crypto-rich monarch.” While diplomats, military planners, and energy markets wait anxiously for a breakthrough, the president appears increasingly occupied with the sort of decorating decisions that normally consume a homeowner preparing for an open house, not a commander-in-chief trying to prevent a regional war.

To be fair, negotiating with Iran is complicated. It requires patience, focus, and sustained attention to detail. Apparently, so does designing a billion-dollar White House ballroom. The difference is that only one of those projects is supposed to be the president’s job. After nearly 60 days of declarations that a deal is imminent, Iran suspended talks yesterday over Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Trump seems far more enthusiastic about selecting architectural renderings than resolving the Middle East’s latest crisis. Recent reports suggest negotiations will resume, but the promised breakthrough remains perpetually just over the horizon.

At this point, it’s fair to wonder whether the administration’s foreign-policy strategy is being managed from the Situation Room or a showroom floor. If nothing else, the negotiators could save time by discussing sanctions, uranium enrichment, and chandelier placement in a single meeting.