President Donald Trump is nothing if not studied at crafting elaborate alternate realities.

But for the last two and a half months or so, he conjured one that seemed primarily aimed at deceiving himself.

He painted Iran as desperate to cut a deal, which always seemed to be right around the corner. And he repeatedly gave Tehran the benefit of the doubt, relaxed his own deadlines, walked back his threats and downplayed Iran’s provocations and apparent ceasefire violations.

The pattern played out again Monday, when Trump yet again backed off on threatened attacks just hours after saying he planned to take over Kharg Island. As he has before, he cited supposed progress in negotiating an agreement.

The problem with this approach is that it has made it pretty clear that Trump lacks the will to go back to war — that he prefers to just be done with it all, even as Iran plays on his reluctance.

And it increasingly appears as though Trump hoping against hope just delayed an inevitable return to the kind of hostilities that resumed this week before Trump’s latest claim of an imminent bargain.

Trump’s fanciful treatment of a potential deal with Iran appears to have mostly prolonged the war and its economic pain — and brought the situation closer to the 2026 midterm elections, which increasingly loom as a major leverage point for Iran.

Even as hostilities intensified over the last 24 hours — largely in the wake of Iran downing a US Army Apache helicopter whose pilots had to be saved — Trump was almost begrudging about being dragged back in.