I agree Snyder is seeing a strategy that isn’t there, but I don’t think Israel was part of Trump’s strategic motivation either. That’s because i don’t think there WAS any strategic motivation. This was nothing more complicated than “nothing bad can happen, it can only good happen” as war policy.

April 06, 2026 - 15:10 UTC

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No, part of the "only good things" was "good things for Israel". We can infer easily this because Netanyahu was one of the people pushing for this war, Israel went in with us simultaneously and was the only country to do so, and Trump's history of crazily pro-Israel actions even in term 1.
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I don’t think Trump’s internal calculus, to the extent he even has one, considers the interests of others at all—not America/Americans, not Israel, not even his own kids. Netanyahu and Putin both steer him very effectively, but that’s by persuading an idiot, not out of any sort of moral solidarity
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While Trump is not long on introspection or planning, it seems to me that if two governments are involved in starting and waging a war it would be worth considering the second government’s goals and motivations
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Yes an American government embarking on a joint operation invading Iran with a partner nation would be recklessly derelict if it were to fail to consider the partner’s motivations, purposes, and aims.

I also think Trump habitually fails to do that and in fact he lacks the *capacity* to do so
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