Will the fires ever cease?

Particularly given the extent to which the mainstream political press tends to give the benefit of the doubt to presidents at war, this is unusually pointed for a news story:

Just a day ago, President Trump said that a peace deal with Iran was imminent. Hours later, the United States and Iran launched new attacks on each other. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said Iran was taking “too long to negotiate” peace, and later said, “We’re going to hit them hard again today.”

As Mr. Trump alternates between promising peace and threatening to return to full-scale war, neither is happening. Instead, the situation is as bewildering as ever, the two sides seeming to agree on nothing, prolonging the turmoil in the Middle East and leaving it unclear how or when the war will end.

Since a cease-fire was declared two months ago, fire has slowed but not ceased. U.S. and Iranian forces have traded occasional attacks and issued almost daily contradictory claims about blame, the fighting and peace talks.

Mr. Trump had made things no clearer, often contradicting himself about whether a peace deal is at hand, whether large-scale fighting will resume, whether the Iranians are eager to settle, and whether the Strait of Hormuz has been reopened, among other things.

The claimed cease-fire “is more like a lesser-fire, as we have seen with the escalating attacks and rhetoric over the last 48 hours,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said on Wednesday.

I’m afraid we’re going to have to wait a little longer for the day Donald Trump finally becomes president, at least outside of the Bari Weiss/Rupert Murdoch Extended Universe.