It's unfortunately on par with his past videos of rehabilitating Gaza and flying in a jet shitting on Americans

Unless the goal is to distract from some unfavorable, heavily redacted files. In which case, this seems to be a resounding success.

Using war to divert unwanted attention away from domestic issues is a proven approach.

It seems that way.

Related:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46691632

> How anyone can not think this is completely insane I dunno.

Not quite, there's a method in the madness. This isn't new in the world of politics - nationalism and expansionist warmongering have always been used in approximately the same way - part distraction and part dog whistling.

Distraction from economic and security policies that aren't in the public interest - the prospect of looting dazzles the mind and makes it easy to utilize the population for concentrating the power in the hands of the looters.

At the same time, it's a dog-whistle to other closeted looters (aka the Putins of the world) signaling that world policing is now passe and pirating has become an honorable profession.

While the newly-hatched pirates salivate over each-other's land, reject all prior agreements as "not something written proving ownership" and proceed to kill each other, they provide more distraction and more justification for war and looting. Mission accomplished.

> Do ~40% of Americans really want their country to become a rampaging conqueror?

That percentage seems a bit low to me. Have you heard any rational arguments against that kind of policy? Something that spells it out, as I did above, together with the risks for the public it entails? Something in mainstream media outside of rare user comments?

Why would people object if no authoritative voice objects on rational grounds?

Yes, it's insane. However on this occasion, I think Trump is just trolling with that map (and his planting a flag post). That said, I do think it's likely that Trump may go ahead with the military option as he seems keen to play with his new toys.

We truly are in the stupidest of timelines.