Washington and New York. President Donald Trump met with advisers in the White House Situation Room this week to consider whether to bomb a metropolitan area of 17 million people in Iran, but he found time Tuesday night to let the world know that amid life-and-death decisions, he was personally handling another matter of great importance to everyone.

“It is my great honor to announce that I will be installing two beautiful flagpoles on each side of the White House, north and south,” the president wrote on social media. “It is my gift of something that has always been missing in this magnificent place.”

In Trump's world, there are always surprises and unexpected schedule changes (even by his own team). On Wednesday morning, Trump appeared on the White House lawn to take photos with construction workers as massive cranes began installing the flagpoles."I've always said, 'Why don't you have a flagpole?' This is probably the biggest w [flagpole] you'll ever see, it's used... they're the best flagpoles in the entire country, in the world, actually." He explained that workers would "raise" the flagpoles around 11 a.m.—and told the surrounding media that he could have used another word that begins with"e" but decided against it to avoid jokes."It's a very exciting project for me," he concluded.

"He's very patriotic. We're doing things right as a country," the president told reporters shortly before going off the rails and attacking the head of the central bank (the Federal Reserve), declaring that"he's not an intelligent person."

The reporters at the antler rally—whom Trump again called fake news—had other questions. “Could you just answer a question about whether you are getting closer, or the United States is getting closer, to attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities,” one asked.

“You don't seriously think I'm going to answer that question?” he said. “I might, I might not. Nobody knows what I'm going to do.”

He added, “Iran is facing many difficulties. And they want to negotiate. I said, ‘Why didn’t they negotiate with me before?’ All this death and destruction… They could have done very well. They would have had a country. It’s very sad to watch.” The reporter asked him if he thought it was already too late to prevent all of this. “Nothing is too late,” the president replied.

Shortly afterward, he asserted that “an agreement can still be reached” and claimed—against all evidence, to the contrary—that “Iran was just a few weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.”

Another reporter asked him to explain his social media message yesterday, in which he simply issued two words:"unconditional surrender." The president responded,"You know what that means? It means I've had enough. I'm done. No more," Trump said, raising both arms. He stated that if surrender is not accepted, the United States would destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

While he was taking photos with the workers installing the flagpoles, reporters were interested in something more serious, pointing out that among his supporters there is concern about entering a long-term war. He clarified that he doesn't want a long-term war, and that"I only want one thing—Iran can't have a nuclear weapon," and warned that if that happened,"they would use it against us, they would use it against others, and they would be a terror throughout the world."

Annoyed by the fact that parts of his base don't support a war, he stated,"My supporters are more in love with me, and I with them, than the day I was elected, by an overwhelming majority." It wasn't an overwhelming majority, and according to recent polls, a majority of those who voted for Trump oppose a war against Iran.

There has been much speculation in this country about why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a war against Iran just days before Trump's negotiators were preparing a peace deal, including preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. It was in this context that a reporter asked Trump what he had told his Israeli counterpart."Keep going," replied the president, wearing his white Make America Great Again hat."I talk to him every day. He's doing a lot... So far, he's doing a very good job." No one among the reporters asked about Gaza.

His exchanges with the press often cover multiple topics, and Wednesday was no exception. He reiterated his insistence that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House. “Putin would never have done it. I actually spoke to him yesterday. He actually offered to mediate. I said, do me a favor, mediate the Russia thing first,” in apparent reference to his war with Ukraine.

And of course, there were no shortage of references to the mass deportation of"criminals," Joe Biden's mental health when he was president, and the militarization of Los Angeles. But with a smile, he returned again and again to his flagpoles, explaining everything from the sand around his bases to the system that keeps them upright.

Asked about the difference between his first term as president and this one, Trump told reporters,"In my first term, you were chasing me. I was the hunted. And now I'm the hunter."