WHY ARE WE ATTACKING IRAN? SO TRUMP CAN BE JOHN BARRON AGAIN.

Here's an NBC News story from Kristen Welker and Alexandra Marquez:

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s not ready to make a deal to end the war with Iran despite the country’s willingness to do so “because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” but declined to say what those terms would be.

In a wide-ranging, nearly 30-minute telephone interview with NBC News, the president also said he is working with other countries on a plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid surges in global oil prices, and he dismissed Americans’ concerns about rising gas prices since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint military operation two weeks ago.

The president also questioned whether Iran’s new supreme leader is “even alive.”

Trump said he was “surprised” that Iran decided to attack other Middle Eastern countries in response to the U.S.-Israeli operation, and that U.S. strikes on Kharg Island on Saturday “totally demolished” most of the island but that “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.”

NBC has another story, from Welker and Sahil Kapur, based on the same phone conversation:

President Donald Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he’s still mulling a potential endorsement in the competitive Republican primary for a Senate seat in Texas.

Sen. John Cornyn is facing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a May 26 runoff after a close contest on the first ballot.

“I’ll let you know that over the next week or so,” Trump said in a phone interview when asked if he’s going to endorse Cornyn. “I like him. I always liked him.”

We keep asking ourselves why Trump attacked Iran. What's the goal in this war? What's the purpose?

I think this is the purpose: Trump wants to be John Barron again.

In Trump's memory, there was a time when he was the most talked-about real estate developer (and sex god) in New York City. Gossip columnists were desperate for news about him. He was so important to the local media that it was sometimes appropriate for him to pose as his own publicist -- John Barron or John Miller or David Dennison -- so he could give reporters and columnists the inside skinny on what that fascinating Trump fellow was up to.

A war that's gone on for a couple of weeks is making him the object of fascination he thinks he was then. As I told you yesterday, The Atlantic has reported that Trump's personal phone number is in wide circulation. Now that we're in a state of war, D.C. reporters are desperate to talk to him -- and he loves it.

Sometimes in meetings, he will leave his phone face up, allowing staff to gawk at the flashing notifications of incoming or missed calls that pile up on his screen. Only some of them are from numbers that have been saved in the device. “It is literally call after reporter call,” the first official said. “It is just boom, boom, boom.”

This is heaven for Trump:

Since the United States first attacked Iran two weeks ago, Trump has answered more than three dozen phone calls from journalists representing at least a dozen outlets, including ABC News, Axios, CBS News, CNN, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Israel’s Channel 14, Fox News, MS NOW, NBC News, The New York Times, the New York Post, Politico, The Times of Israel, The Washington Post, and, yes, The Atlantic. A journalist from The Washington Reporter, a small conservative outlet, has repeatedly called, and the administration officials say Substack authors have started to call, forcing White House staff to look up names they don’t recognize.

Most of these calls are quickies.

Brief seems to be the most frequent descriptor attached to these calls, most of which last just a few minutes, rarely more than 10.

The call with NBC (presumably with Welker) was unusual because it went on for a half hour, long enough to veer off into domestic issues (the Texas Senate race).

Why did a younger Donald Trump build, buy, and redesign builings? Why did he write books, own a football team, run casinos, and put his name on a range of mediocre products? For the money, yes, but mostly for the attention.

That's the main reason he's fighting this war. There's no reason to overthink it. His top strategic goal is to make reporters desperate to talk to him.