There is a new sheriff in town, a new most powerful person on the planet. The citizens of the developed world have been painfully aware for several weeks now that said man is not the American president or the Israeli Prime Minister. Supreme Leader of Iran Mojtaba Khamenei is now running things worldwide, because he is controlling the traffic through the globally significant trade artery of the Strait of Hormuz.

In an effort to change the humiliating power dynamic that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu created, Donald Trump opened up Easter Sunday with a post on his social media site that made him sound like a man who’d been sitting at the bar too long, doing far too many shots. Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said the cabinet should be talking to Constitutional law experts about the 25th Amendment. But there will be no such conversation, of course.  One thing the 47^th president got right in his second term was choosing a cabinet that would never cross him, never find him unfit, though even a conservative journalist has called on Vice President JD Vance to invoke the amendment.

Two Republican Party insiders who are consistently willing to share knowledge and insight with me had strong feelings about the profanity-laced, religion-mocking, war-crimes-threatening communication that came from the president of the United States Sunday morning. They found it appalling. But they are members of the 40 percent of their party who want a swift end to this war regardless of whether the stated goals are achieved. Both also were unequivocally clear that nothing about that post was likely to change the minds of the 50-something percent of MAGA members who want Trump to achieve his objectives no matter how long it takes. As long as more than half of MAGA members still support both him and the administration’s execution of the war, there is no reason for Mr. Trump to do anything different.

The percentage of MAGA war supporters may well have grown after the heroic and incredulous rescue of a downed American airman, who was reportedly running from Iranian capture while trying to remain accessible to rescuers. No doubt someone is trying to buy the story rights already.

Having altered a previous deadline to bomb the country into oblivion if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, it is hard to imagine the president could save face again if he did not follow through. As of this writing, Iran does not appear to be ready to blink in a game of chicken in which it has the upper hand. And my colleagues tell me no one in Capitol or statehouse Republican politics is holding their breath for Mr. Trump to use a well-worn tactic and falsely claim he achieved the military objectives, so he can now happily take his warships and go home. Some Republicans believe this does not end until the U.S. has Iran’s uranium.

What kind of escalation might that take?

I pushed back against the idea that Mr. Trump would escalate and prolong this war to such an extent if gas is $6 a gallon and the world economy slowly grinds to a standstill – or if the number of wounded and killed climbs dramatically. After all, the two economic possibilities are likely the reason for the sense of urgency behind a post that seemed deranged.

At least we can hope there is some rational thought behind what frequently appears to be madness. We need it badly to match the reasoned and strategic actions of the “totally defeated” enemy who is surprisingly in control.