'Weak': Ex-Bush aide says Trump is grasping for excuses to cave to Iran

President Donald Trump is desperately looking for excuses to back down from his hostile position against Iran, former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum told MSNBC's Alicia Menendez on Thursday, because although he loves wielding power, he is terrified of having to use it in situations like this — and cannot be trusted to use it for the public good.

The comments from Frum, a frequent critic of the administration, come as Trump has reportedly already signed off on an attack against Iran, but is holding off on giving the final order.

"David, when you were in a pivotal moment for a presidency, which I think it is fair to call this moment and a decision of this magnitude arises, what do those conversations normally look like?" asked Menendez. "And then compare that to what we are seeing from this administration?"

"Well, I don't think you should compare this administration to anything else in American history, this collection of jokers and crackpots and crooks," said Frum. "We should not allow the drama of the moment to efface from our minds what we know about this administration. It is vacillating. It is weak. When President Trump says he needs two weeks, that means he's looking for a way not to make a decision, not for a way to make a decision. He enjoys the feeling of power in his hands, but he flinches from the consequences of responsibility. He staffed his administration with people who shouldn't be in positions of public trust."

"One obvious move that the Iranians would have, for example, if the United States struck at them, would be to activate terror networks inside the United States," Frum continued. And standing against those terror networks, he said, are "an FBI, where they have laid off all the counterterrorism professionals, headed by jokers. You got a Department of Homeland Security that has spent ... millions and millions of dollars on an advertising campaign to say thank you, Trump, again, with a kind of play-acting director. You've got a Defense Department who is under leadership that no one would put this Defense Department under on the way to war. It just doesn't add up."

The bottom line, he concluded, is that "one of the things that the Israelis need to keep in mind ... Trump betrays everyone who trusts him, with one exception, and that is Vladimir Putin, not Israel. He's betrayed his creditors. He's betrayed his investors. He's betrayed his wives. He's betrayed his children. He will betray you, too. Be wary of putting your trust in him."

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