After admitting he ignored the advice of his generals on a life-saving mission in the Iran war, Donald Trump indicated his war on journalism remains at full throttle

A Trump presser for the ages (NY Times)

Many Americans probably have not been sleeping well since President Donald Trump signaled on Easter Sunday that he plans to escalate our war in Iran. The search for shuteye likely will get more difficult after Trump admitted yesterday that he is prone to ignoring advice from his generals. That suggests Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are winging it in Iran. (Note: Longtime Alabama attorney and investigative journalist Donald Watkins refers to Hegseth as a "commode-hugging drunk," a phrase that conjures up all kinds of disturbing images. And based on press accounts, it appears to be discomfitingly accurate.)

For good measure, Trump showed he can be a threat to national security, while simultaneously escalating his war on journalists. That all came down yesterday during a wild White House press conference. Will Americans ever get decent rest until the Orange Menace is removed from office? Unfortunately, that seems like a pretty timely question.

At its Facebook page, Occupy Democrats has a report on the batshit craziness in the Brady Press Room. We suggest you buckle up:

In the span of just a few extraordinary minutes at the White House yesterday, Donald Trump nearly leaked classified military intelligence, admitted he overruled his own generals on a mission that could have killed hundreds of Americans, and stopped to compliment a four-star general's looks.

We wish we could say that this is satire, but this happened at the White House podium.

Even worse, this all transpired right after Trump vowed to track down the reporter who leaked the story that one of the pilots shot down over Iran had not been initially rescued — a damning revelation about the failures of his vaunted military operation. Rather than address the substance of that failure, Trump's instinct was pure autocrat: find the leaker, punish the truth-teller.

Then, almost immediately, he nearly became the biggest leaker in the room himself.

The press conference featured another oddity: Trump is notorious for being untruthful, but he actually displayed disarming candor -- although it was not necessarily a good thing in this instance. From Occupy Democrats:

When a reporter asked whether all of his military advisers had supported the rescue mission, Trump's answer was stunning in its candor: "There were people within the military that said this is not a wise…" He paused and then said, "I decided to do it."

His own generals told him not to do it. He did it anyway. And then he wanted to tell the whole world exactly how many troops he sent in.

"How many men did you send altogether, approximately, for the operation?" Trump asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Dan Caine — out loud, at a public press conference, on camera. 

Caine's response was the desperate intervention of a man watching classified information about to spill onto live television: "I'd love to keep that a secret."

Trump's response to being told by the nation's top military officer that troop numbers should remain classified? "Okay, well, but I will tell you the number. I'll keep it a secret, but it was hundreds and hundreds of these people."

He then pivoted — mid-sentence, mid-crisis — to compliment General Caine's appearance. "Is he central casting?" Trump marveled, apparently unable to get through a discussion about a mission that nearly cost hundreds of American lives without remarking on how cinematic his general looks. 

Shocking? It might have been to some people. But perhaps it should be expected in a country that allows a former TV game-show host to become president -- and remain president long after his expiration date. Trump was close to winding down, but he still had one stunningly graceless line up his sleeve, as Occupy Democrats reports:

Then came the line that should haunt every American: "Hundreds of people could have been killed. Forget about the equipment, a lot of equipment, nobody cares. Hundreds of people could have been killed."

Nobody cares about the equipment? The American taxpayers' money and the military hardware lost over Iran? Nobody cares?

The generals said it wasn't wise. Trump understood. Trump did it anyway. Hundreds of Americans were put in mortal danger. And when someone told the truth about what went wrong, Trump threatened to destroy them — while nearly spilling classified troop numbers himself at a press conference.

The most frightening thing is that this is the man with the nuclear codes.