It was earlier this week when officials in Minnesota first detected a cyberattack on roughly three dozen municipal water systems in the state, and initially it wasn’t clear who or what was responsible.

In the days that followed, the state government publicly confirmed the cyberattacks, and a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter told MS NOW that it was probably the work of Iranian hackers.

For his part, President Donald Trump has decided not to believe this.

“We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack, and they blame it on Iran — I don’t think so,” the president said during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David. “I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent.”

He went on to say, “There was a cyberattack of 30 water plants, and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota. Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.”

Shortly thereafter, as the meeting started to wrap up, a reporter asked the Republican whether he’s prepared to rule out the possibility that Iran was responsible for the cyberattacks. Trump again blamed Minnesota.

“I think that Minnesota is behind it,” the president said. “You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack.”

So let me get this straight. The United States is at war with Iran, a longtime foe, which is led by people Trump has described as “scum” and “evil.” The U.S. also appears to have evidence that Iran, as part of that ongoing war, launched a cyberattack on American infrastructure.

Confronted with these developments, the sitting president could have used this opportunity to justify a new round of strikes (which he apparently wants to launch anyway). Trump, however, instead decided to blame Americans and exonerate the foreign enemy that appears to have launched the cyberattacks.

I’m mindful that the White House increasingly treats Democratic-led states as undeserving of federal support and resources, because too many of their voters dared to vote in ways Trump doesn’t like, but this is quite bonkers.

It was around this time 42 years ago when Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick spoke at the Republican National Convention and referred to Democrats and the left as the “blame-America-first crowd.”

Decades later, the implication of the phrase lingers, although it’s more easily applied to the incumbent Republican president.

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