Geographically challenged Trump says we can 'boom, boom' walk from Qatar to Iran
News and commentary for all Americans concerned about the direction of our country
By J.C. Bruce
We’ve known for some time that Donald Trump is geographically challenged.
After all, he’s the guy who couldn’t remember the location of the Gulf of Mexico, so he ordered it renamed. And now nobody knows where it is.
This week, he demonstrated his ineptness again. At a sidebar gaggle at the G7 conference in France, he intoned:
"Qatar is the closest to Iran, physically. With other countries, I noticed they had to travel about 45 minutes to get there. With you, you could walk right across the border."
Small problem:
Qatar and Iran are separated at their closest point by about 120 miles of the Persian Gulf. They do not share a land border.
Unless your first name is Jesus, you ain’t doing any walking straight to Iran from Qatar across miles and miles of water.
You could go by boat, I suppose, although there aren’t a lot of watercraft puttering about in the Persian Gulf right now.
Swimming would be dicey. The water gets up to 90 degrees in the summer, is super salty, there are lots of sea snakes, sharks, toxic jellyfish and scorpionfish. Then there’s the fact the water is among the most polluted in the world, Oh, yeah, then there are all those mines. You wouldn’t want to be in the middle of a breast stroke and bump into one of those.
You could hitch a ride on a drone, I suppose. Been lots of them zooming over the Persian Gulf lately.
But you won’t be out for a quick stroll across the border, no matter what our delusional 80-year-old president says.
Depressingly, this isn’t the first time for Trump to get this wrong.
In December 2025, he told reporters on Air Force One regarding Qatar:
“They were very brave, and their leader, the emir, was very brave. His country is right in the middle of everything. More so than any other country. His country, you walk across a line, and you’re there. Other countries are there, but they’re an hour or an hour and a half away, a big difference. They’re literally, you walk over from Iran to Qatar. You can walk it in one second. You go ‘boom, boom,’ and now you’re in Qatar, that’s tough territory.”
Boom, boom?
Can’t somebody give this guy a map? This is embarrassing. No wonder they lock him out of the Situation Room. Turn him loose, and the next thing you know, he could be dropping bombs on his new ballroom.
Hmmm. Maybe unlock the Situation Room for just a few minutes, whadaya say?
As noted, this is not new behavior. Trump has a long history of this sort of confusion. For instance:
Talking to African leaders at a United Nations luncheon, Trump praised the health care system of “Nambia,” which, as far as anyone knows, doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s an invisible neighbor to the Black Panther’s invisible Wakanda. Or maybe he was thinking of Narnia.
Calling Nepal “Nipple” and Bhutan “Button.”
Congratulating “the great state of Kansas” for the Super Bowl victory of Missouri’s Kansas City Chiefs.
Bragging about his “Colorado border wall” to keep out Mexican immigrants, even though Colorado is nowhere near the Mexican border.
Expressing sympathy to Miami residents being overrun by “communists from South Africa.” Did he mean South America? Or was he trying to tell us something about Elon Musk?
And, of course, there’s Sharpiegate, where Trump took a marker to a weather map to predict the path of Hurricane Dorian that had absolutely no connection to reality.
Here’s a suggestion for the pilots of Air Force One: On your way back from France, turn navigation duties over to Trump and, just for kicks, let’s see where you end up. Take your time. No need to hurry back.
J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press and an award-winning author and journalist. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida, which is just across the border from Cuba.
Thanks for your support
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog.
Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.
J.C. Bruce
Share Tropic Press!
As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. But there are literally millions of Florida Democrats and independents we are not reaching yet.
That’s a problem you can help solve.
With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn our state and this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends.
If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.
Strange Currents
Today’s edition of this newsletter is brought to you by Tropic Press Books, publisher of The Strange Files Series. Strange Fact: The first sentence of Strange Currents, the fourth book in the series, won the “Best First Sentence” award at the annual International Thriller Writers convention in New York City. It reads:
“I knew my number was up when the flamingo stepped on my face.”
Check out the award-winning series here:
We are all in this sh*t show together.
Sink or swim.... No pun intended :-)
We will come out on the other side .
Thankfully, he will not.
He is toast!
The saddest part for me is not “his ineptness”. It’s the country’s acceptance of his ineptness. :(