Donald Trump’s miscalculation has been exposed.

Two weeks into this war and it is clearer than ever that Donald Trump miscalculated. It did not seem to occur to him that bombing Iran would raise gasoline prices in the United States, even though it is a net exporter of petroleum. If he was warned that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz, he ignored it.

Nor does he seem to have considered the possibility that an oil supply crisis would strengthen Vladimir Putin – indeed, that it might throw him a lifeline just as Russia’s economic burden of sustaining the war in Ukraine was becoming intolerable.

After 14 days of strikes on Iran, accompanied by boasts and threats that the war is either over or going to go on for a long time, the US president’s reasons for launching military action are still no clearer. Mr Trump continues to blow hot and cold, now calling for other countries to send warships – an abrupt change in tone since he said he did not need help from the British, accusing us of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”.