On 22 September, at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump told the room he had, in his words, “a big decision to make: Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before… or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly?” He said the only thing that mattered was that Iran never have a nuclear weapon, said he wasn’t running in the midterms and would give the timing of an election no credence in his Iran decisions, then in the next breath predicted a deal would land after the midterms anyway, accusing Iran of stalling talks specifically to watch how he polls. Seventy-one percent of voters disapprove of his handling of foreign policy, the worst rating of either of his presidencies. Seventy-six percent say the war hasn’t been worth its cost in American lives and money. A president who insists an election means nothing to his decision-making, while describing a decision about annihilating a country in the same breath as that election, is not being contradictory by accident.