Consider: Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 took off from Tehran with 82 Iranians on board. By what strain of logic would killing so many of one’s own citizens hurt another nation? No doubt, Iran would love to “provide vengeance,” but Iranian officials announced early on that they would seek reprisal against the United States by striking military targets. Thus, this week, just hours before the airliner exploded midair, Iran fired more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles at Iraqi military bases that housed U.S. troops.

By the logic of those trying to saddle Trump with blame, these two events would have had to be coordinated strikes for the purpose of impugning Trump. But it would have been a mighty gamble for Tehran to presume that the world would react in synchrony against Trump rather than Iran. Furthermore, what sense would there be to conduct military strikes that caused no casualties and another that killed 176 civilians?