Suffice it to say, President Donald Trump loves golf, particularly on courses he owns, playing most recently on the one in Scotland. When he actually needed to transact business, he appeared petulant and annoyed. “I am not in a good mood,” maybe because the Jeffrey Epstein affair followed him to the Scottish Highlands. He also bristled at the European Union representative, Ursula von der Leyen, who proved less than pliable over heavy Trump tariff demands. The President should be careful expressing his every thought.

Trump appears bored when confronted and expects friends and foes to bend to his will. Moreover, he seems lost outside of the golf course. Needless to say, his amusements should not take center stage. Frank Clement, the keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention in 1956, gets closer to describing Trump than Dwight Eisenhower, also a golf enthusiast, when he declared that Ike peered down the “green fairways of indifference.” Unlike Eisenhower, Trump appears to be unable to mask his emotions, a trait that is not particularly useful in foreign policy. What set his mood to the downside was a question concerning Epstein. Unlike dismissing such questions coolly, he reacted like Richard Nixon, who, before becoming president, was Eisenhower’s vice president and who, during his scandal, whined that he would not “wallow in Watergate.”

Churlish reactions might appear strong and tough, but they only reveal a touchiness that makes him seem suspect, thus embolding his critics. And it comes at a critical time in world affairs. Border wars raged between India and Pakistan, and Cambodia versus Thailand. Add on the serious conflicts between Israel and Hamas, Russia against Ukraine, and you have a powder keg. Not to mention the tensions in the strait separating China from Taiwan.

Intemperate remarks can have consequences beyond simply bad manners and faux pas. If an event happens that shakes the world order, anything is possible. One only needs to go to Europe during the beautiful summer of 1914, when the peace of that continent was disrupted by the assassination of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Serbian nationalists murdered Franz Ferdinand. At first, it seemed only a personal tragedy; even Kaiser Wilhelm II, a close friend of the Archduke, continued on his holiday to the fjords of Norway. However, the crisis ripened, the alliance system took hold, and by August, the peace was shattered.

It is unlikely that such a crisis will occur. However, if it did, Trump’s demeanor could be a problem. His preoccupation with any fallout from the Epstein affair has found him unusually off balance. He accuses his critics of being enamored of a “hoax” and accuses people of treason because of the Russia election interference allegations in 2017. He allows Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, to adjourn the body so as not to vote on a resolution related to the Epstein scandal. If a foreign crisis were to occur, any provocation could turn a peaceful world into something less so.

If one has time for a good summer read, I would suggest Barbara Tuchman’s classic “The Guns of August.” Perhaps Trump will pick up a copy during his vacation.