Tom Nichols: “Who could forget the riveting moment, during the high Cold War tensions of the early 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan strode to the White House podium and told the American people that Soviet leader Yuri Andropov had ‘gone absolutely crazy.’ Raising his voice to a yell, Reagan thundered that Andropov was bombarding thousands of people in the middle of Europe ‘for no reason whatsoever’ and warned Moscow that ‘it better stop.’”

“No one remembers this, of course, because it didn’t happen. Once upon a time, Americans expected their presidents to be steady hands. Times have changed: These quotes are from one of Donald Trump’s latest rhetorical blasts on his Truth Social site. Trump wanted to let everyone know that he is very, very upset with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continuing campaign of civilian slaughter in Ukraine.”

“President Donald Trump said Canada would need to pay $61 billion to join the ‘Golden Dome’ system he’s proposed to boost missile defense with space-based interceptors,” Bloomberg reports.

“But the president needled Ottawa by saying he would be willing to protect Canada for free if the nation opted to join the United States, his latest suggestion that the northern neighbor would benefit from being absorbed by the US.”

“The U.S. State Department is again advising American citizens not to travel to Venezuela, warning of ‘severe risks’ including wrongful detention, kidnapping and torture,” CBS News reports.

“President Trump cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call last week not to take any action that could jeopardize negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on a new nuclear deal,” Axios reports.

“Israel has been making preparations to swiftly strike Iran’s nuclear sites if U.S.-Iran nuclear talks break down in the coming weeks.”