What is Trump doing in the Middle East? Well, to discuss this, I am joined by Alexander Mercuris and

Syed Mohammed Marandia, professor and an advisor to the Iranian nuclear negotiation team.

Also, can add both of them prolific analysts who are definitely worth following.

So, I'm not sure how to read this new outburst of Trump.

He's seemingly deliberately appearing unpredictable or he just might be improvising.

I'm sometimes reminded of President Nixon's madman theory

in which the idea was if he acts erratic, unpredictable.

This would be intimidating to his adversaries.

They would be cautious not to provoke,

as he could lose control at any time.

And again, so convincing your adversaries, you might be irrational, which makes them cautious.

On the other sign of that coin, of course, is that unpredictability is not great for political

stability, which is why everyone doesn't behave like a madman. Of course, I could be wrong,

he might just be mad, but I bring this up because I'm

trying to make sense of Trump's approach to the Middle East. He says he wants to pull back from the region

and end this forever wars. At the same time, he now said he wanted to ethnically cleanse every

Palestinian from Gaza and of course for the US to take ownership of Gaza,

whatever that might mean, which I really doubt he means this literally because it would be

too crazy and I can't see how this would actually be implemented. So how can we read all of this?

Is this just bluster to assist Netanyahu with what has effectively been a defeat?

Is it U.S. effort to pursue retrenchment without seeming weak?

Or is it just a negotiation bluff to escalate attentions or rhetoric before you come with your great proposal?

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