It was well under 100 hours after President Donald Trump’s overly long, overly theatrical State of the Union speech that he unleashed American bombers across Iran. As I write, it is now less than 100 hours since those bombers started releasing their lethal payloads.

Who knows what the next 100 hours will bring? It is hard to keep us these days.

In retrospect, a glaring omission from the State of the Union was any serious effort to prepare Americans for what was soon to unfold and to explain to them what is at stake.

War planning does not end with a target list and the assurance that personnel and munitions are in place. It also involves an essential component of making the case and enlisting public support.

Think of FDR’s slow and concerted manner of shifting the tide of public opinion with respect to U.S. engagement in World War II. Flash on newsreel footage of his fireside chats through the war to explain events and keep the country fully engaged. For that matter, recall Ronald Reagan’s expert use of his bully pulpit to ratchet up pressure on a declining Soviet empire.

From our current president, Americans have received precious little, next to nothing, by way of a rationale for this massive incursion. At a minimum, our commander-in-chief owes the country an articulation of the hazard and why he has chosen this path. It would be good to know the nature of the goal and the foreseen endgame.

Not only are those fully legitimate expectations of the American people but they would be in the president’s political interest as well. Leading a nation into war is difficult enough even when the country is on board and informed.

True, mediums change over time. In place of fireside chats, we now have tweets, of whatever they are called, on Trump’s own Truth Social platform. But even those have been quite empty when it comes to reasoning and explanation.

For a master salesman such as Trump, this is surprising. Given the lack of enthusiasm, putting it mildly, for this venture from many in his ranks, including reportedly a good deal of the Pentagon brass, one cannot help but wonder if the president is clear-eyed in his own thinking.

Trump has travelled some mighty distance when it comes to foreign entanglements. That stretch seems magnified in light of the lack of public clarification.

From his first term through his subsequent campaigns, he rarely missed an opportunity to decry “stupid wars” and military interventions. It was a core precept of his MAGA movement. Rightly or wrongly, Trump promised America a far more isolationist interlude.

Yet here we are, not 14 months into his second term, and Nigeria has been bombed, Iran’s nuclear facilities were “completely and totally obliterated,” sabers have been rattled over taking Greenland, Venezuela’s strongman was militarily extracted, we are now again filling the skies over Iran in a sustained onslaught of indeterminate duration, and Cuba remains on the horizon.

To be clear, I shed precisely zero tears for Nicolas Maduro or for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ditto for the archaic communist leadership of Cuba if and when its time comes. Those southern neighbors of ours deserve to hope again after 67 years of misery.

The lament is not in their demise but in the lack of apparent planning or evident care for what comes next. Some have referred to Trump’s recent adventures as a “head-on-a-pike” foreign policy. What this means is that Trump uses our military might to remove this or that foreign leader who has been a long-term nuisance to America.

As strategies go, this one is remarkably incomplete. To date, Trump has shown himself quite uninterested in closing the circle.

In Venezuela, Trump has chosen to do business with Maduro’s former vice president and obedient functionary. For sure, Delcy Rodriguez is quicker to take White House phone calls and bend the knee. She’s no fool. But any commitment to a revival of democracy seems just as far removed as when Maduro was still at the helm.

As to democracy leader, Maria Corina Machado, Trump has thrown voluminous cold water on her return to Venezuela much less her pursuit of office. This comes in spite of Machado’s foolhardy offer of her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and the president’s unconscionable keeping of the medal.

In Iran, Trump has offered lip service to liberation and modernization activists, telling them this is their moment. But the forces of the theocracy remain powerfully entrenched. Iranians thinking of taking to the streets have to weigh whether Trump really has their back and for how long.

Trump made his name as a builder. Many luxury towers bear his game to go along with golf courses and all the rest.

As a second-term president, he has shifted much of his focus overseas. With the arsenal at his disposal, it is not all that difficult to displace or annihilate foreign menaces. What remains to be determined is whether that is the extent of Trump’s agenda or if he is committed to building something different in place of those conclusively toppled.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and The Gazette. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann