The President's state visit to China is postponed from April to mid-May.

OK. Hold on a minute. Wednesday afternoon. The White House announces, in a joint statement with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, that the state visit the President had been planning to take to Beijing in the first week of April is postponed until May 14 to 15.

The official reason, hon, on the joint statement, is the Iran war. The Iran war is making it difficult for the President to leave the country for a state visit.

This is, hon, interesting, because the Iran war, on the administration’s own previous statements, is, in the order of statements made over the past three weeks: almost over, just beginning, won, not yet won, demanding more time, winding down, the death of Iran, and requiring a two-hundred-billion-dollar supplemental. You cannot, hon, postpone a trip because the war you are at is too active to leave and also spend the previous week advertising that the war is almost over. Pick one, hon. The trip cancellation says war is hot. The Sunday show appearances say war is cold.

The postponement, on the practical side, is probably the right call. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The Pentagon is requesting two hundred billion dollars. The Defense Secretary is on television every other morning. You do not, hon, fly to Beijing for a state visit in the middle of all that. You do not, hon, sit through a six-course state dinner with Xi Jinping while American forces are under fire in the Persian Gulf. You do not, hon, give the press conference on the Forbidden City steps while the Pentagon is announcing more strikes.

So the postponement, hon, is correct. The postponement is operationally sound. The postponement, on the fact sheet, is not what is embarrassing. What is embarrassing, hon, is the administration spending the prior fourteen days saying the war is winding down and then postponing the state visit because the war is not winding down.

The Chinese, hon, in the joint statement, did not complain. The Chinese did, however, in the Foreign Ministry briefing room in Beijing on Thursday morning, take the unusual step of telling the press that the postponement was requested by the American side. That is, hon, the standard Chinese diplomatic move when they want to remind the world that they are not the side that needs the meeting. They want to remind the world that they are the side the United States is asking for the meeting.

The new dates, hon, are May 14 to 15. That puts the state visit on the forty-third week of the Iran war. That is, by every standard projection, long after the war is not almost over. The administration, on the new dates, is implicitly admitting that the war will still be going on at the end of April and into May. The administration, on the Sunday shows, is still saying the war is almost over. The new dates, hon, are the administration admitting to itself what it will not admit to the public.

You ever try to book a wedding you are also telling everybody you are too busy to attend?

Funny how that works.