Inside Trump's 'crazy world' of milk bottles, sled dogs and threats

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP

Take it from Donald Trump: It's a "crazy world!"

The American president's extraordinary - and utterly exhausting - grip on the global psyche intensified on Wednesday (US time).

Tension settled heavily on Washington, stretched across the Atlantic and cloaked the Middle East. Everyone was waiting for fire from the skies.

Would Trump strike Iran to make good on his vow that "help is on the way" after the brutal suppression of protesters?

Or is he taking an out, based on apparent and questionable assurances from a source in Iran that executions would stop?

"We're going to watch and see what the process is," he told reporters.

Everyone is waiting to see what Trump does next.

And he loves it, as he sits behind the Oval Office desk, flinging out threats, subterfuge and insults like a conductor leading an orchestra - but conjuring not harmony but worldwide chaos.

Asked how he could trust pledges from an Iranian regime that just imposed a brutal crackdown and killed at least several thousand of its own people after decades of severe authoritarianism, Trump left Americans with one of his classic cliff-hangers.

"We're going to find out," he told reporters. "I'll find out after this. You'll find out, but we've been told on good authority, and I hope it's true. Who knows, right? Who knows. Crazy world."

One of the craziest things was that Trump was holding forth on a grave issue of war and peace during an Oval Office event promoting full-fat milk that schools will be able to serve to kids under a newly passed law.

"Remember the old days when we were kids?" Trump asked a press po