Donald J. Trump did the virtually impossible this week when faced with a seeming foreign policy success he managed to restore the ridiculousness of his vengeance campaign.

Trump has appeared to have helped broker a peace deal between Hamas and Israel, ending a two-year war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians. What does he do, just as word gets out about the ceasefire in Gaza? The Justice Department indicts New York Attorney General Letitia James on a seeminly specious charge of real estate fraud.

The POTUS then shifted the talk away from a landmark peace deal in the Middle East to yet another example of the ghastly retribution he is seeking against political opponents. James is a foe of Trump. Her office obtained a conviction on 34 felony counts a year ago against Trump, making him the first felon ever elected president of the United States.

Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to secure an indictment against James, just as he did when a grand jury indicted former FBI Director Jim Comey on a phony charge of perjury before a Senate committee.

Thursday should have been Donald Trump’s day of triumph. I am one American who is delighted at the prospect that peace might finally be on tap for the Gaza Strip. Hamas threw the region into a bloody cauldron when on Oct. 7, 2023 it launched a hideous missile attack against Israeli civilians, killing more than 1,000 victims. Israel’s response was to invade Gaza with armor, artillery, infantry and air power. The result has been carnage not seen since, oh, the Vietnam War.

Trump’s team was able to persuade Israel and Hamas to stop the killing. There appears to be a deal in the works to make this deal possible. Trump stepped on his own applause lines by indicting the New York AG who was doing her job as a prosecutor.

The guy has multiple loose screws rattling around in his over-coiffed noggin.