Conservative columnist George Will has unleashed a scathing critique of President Donald Trump in a new Washington Post editorial published Friday, describing the president as "frivolous" and "oblivious" as global tensions continue to mount.

The column, headlined "Amid an August of mounting danger, a frivolous, oblivious president," opens with a pointed indictment: "This August features a stunning divergence. The world becomes more dangerous as U.S. governance becomes more frivolous."

Scott MacFarlane, chief Washington correspondent for MeidasTouch Network, flagged the lead sentence on social media Friday, drawing attention to Will's characterization of the president.

Will's editorial takes aim at Trump's handling of the ongoing conflict with Iran, faulting the president for launching a second military operation against Tehran just months after declaring that the first strike had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. The United States and Israel attacked Iran in February, opening the largest Middle East military campaign since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The columnist also skewered Trump's escalating feud with South Korea, writing that the president is "miffed" with Seoul over what he views as "insufficient help" with his second Iran operation. The rift strains one of Washington's most enduring security partnerships in Asia, an alliance sealed by a 1953 mutual defense treaty after the Korean War and anchored today by roughly 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea.

Will's disdain for Trump is neither new nor incidental. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who received the award for commentary in 1977 and has been a leading figure in conservative opinion journalism for five decades, publicly left the Republican Party in 2016 over Trump's rise, telling a Federalist Society luncheon, "This is not my party." Since then, he has been one of the most prominent conservative voices of the "Never Trump" movement. In June, he delivered what was described as a blistering "autopsy" of the second term, writing that Trump's "worthy U.S. goal became a casualty of presidential frivolousness."

The latest broadside lands as Trump navigates a widening rift with Seoul, unresolved fighting with Iran, and questions over the intelligence assessments underpinning his war claims. A general who led the Defense Department's intelligence agency was fired earlier this year after concluding that the June 2025 strikes had not destroyed Iran's nuclear program, as Will noted in his June column — a split between the president's "obliterated" claim and the judgment of his own intelligence agencies.