The ongoing geopolitical standoff between Washington and Tehran is frequently analyzed through a traditional lens of military strategy, but its most defining feature is actually behavioral.

Observers are routinely baffled by a recurring cycle of communication: The American presidency issues warnings of total destruction, only to transition seamlessly within days to declaring that an historic breakthrough is “imminent.” To conventional foreign policy institutions, this public whiplash reads as entirely “trumposterous” — a term I use to describe an approach to global leadership that seems counterproductive, erratic, and utterly absurd by historical standards.