Trump is clearly furious that he didn't get the credit he thinks he deserves for a "GREAT meeting with Putin." Of course, not even his top aides know all of what was discussed or decided behind closed doors. All that the public saw was that Trump accepted Putin's lies over the truth-telling of the US intelligence community, and that he refused to criticise the Russian dictator for his many offences - including ongoing cyber attacks on the United States. Trump's subservience triggered a week of toxic headlines as criticism poured in from past intelligence officials. Former director of national intelligence James Clapper jnr suggested that "the Russians have something" on Trump; former CIA director John Brennan judged the President's performance "nothing short of treasonous."

The next move was as predictable as Trump golfing at one of his resorts: He tried to change the subject. His first attempt, on Friday, was to tweet about his favourite controversy: National Football League players kneeling during the national anthem. His stern demand - "First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!" - did not generate the headlines he so transparently hoped for. Maybe he should have suggested guillotining for a third offence.

Try, try again. Hence his Sunday night threat against Iran. Coming from any other president, this out-of-the-blue, ALL-CAPS ultimatum would have led to suggestions that he's hitting the bottle. But for Trump the teetotaler, it's just business as usual. This time, he got the world's attention. I was actually planning to write on Monday about Trump and Russia. Instead, I'm writing about Trump and Iran. Far more important from Trump's perspective, the talk on cable news turned from Russia to Iran. Mission accomplished.

The problem for Trump is that the credibility of his threats is diminishing. Sure, he scared the world silly in the summer of 2017 by threatening to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea. But within a year, he was all but surrendering to "Little Rocket Man" - legitimating and lavishly praising him on the world stage while stopping US-South Korea joint military exercises in return for nothing but vague promises of denuclearisation at some unspecified point in the future. Even Trump recognises that North Korea isn't living up to its bargain, even though he publicly claims that negotiations are "going very well." (Good to know he's deceptive but not delusional.)