There's a certain type of young child who gets that phrase written about him on his early school report cards. The type who has to be the center of everything, all the time. Who always has to be the one who picks what games the other children play. Who, when losing one of those games, angrily throws the game board to the floor, scattering all the pieces, while yelling: "You cheated!" Who insults the other children and mocks them mercilessly for any perceived shortcomings. Who has an incredibly thin skin when mocked himself. Who never takes the blame for anything or admits any wrongdoing. Who throws epic tantrums at the drop of a hat. In a word: a bully.

Donald Trump, our toddler-in-chief, is in the midst of one of those incandescent tantrums. His war isn't going anywhere near as well as he thought it would, and the fact that Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz is making him apoplectic with rage. He is now demanding that other countries of the world save him from his missteps, by sending their warships into the Strait to escort oil tankers and other ships. But he's finding that the rest of the world is not exactly leaping to help him out, which shouldn't come of much of a surprise to anyone, considering how he has treated all of America's closest allies up to this point.

Trump has been badmouthing NATO for years. He has threatened more than once that America might just pull out of the alliance. He has heaped scorn on all of our allies and denigrated their leaders in personal terms (regularly hurling schoolyard insults at them). He has even threatened to annex Canada and take over Greenland, militarily if necessary. But now he desperately wants their help.

Trump entered into this war woefully unprepared and without a clear picture of the likely outcome. Case in point: last fall, all four of America's minesweeping ships in the Persian Gulf were decommissioned, and in January they were sent home to Philadelphia. They had been based in the Gulf for four decades, but apparently Trump thought they wouldn't be necessary any more (the only other minesweepers of this type the U.S. military has are based in Japan, half a world away). When Trump was told, before starting his war of choice, that Iran would most likely attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, he brushed it off and insisted that they would never do such a thing. This has resulted in there being absolutely no military plan to reopen the Strait in any meaningful way. We just don't have the naval assets in place to do so, and getting them there will take weeks, if it is even possible in the midst of this war.

Trump also didn't consult with or even inform European and Asia allies before launching his war. Trump has never understood the value of having military allies, and instead of treating them as important partners all he shows for them is contempt. This is now coming back to bite him in a big way. Just last week, Trump rebuffed an offer from Britain to send two aircraft carriers to the region to help, saying: "we don't need them any longer," and "we don't need people that join Wars after we've already won!"

That was before he began trying to pass the buck for ship escorts through the Strait. He now seems to think this is all somehow a problem for other countries to solve:

The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help -- A LOT! The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well. This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be -- It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!

You've just got to love the chutzpah in stating: "This should always have been a team effort," when Trump did absolutely nothing to put together any sort of military coalition before the bombing began.

Trump has named five countries he now thinks should take care of his Strait of Hormuz problem for him: Great Britain, France, China, Japan, and South Korea. So far, none of them have publicly agreed to send any ships to help. Many of them are issuing noncommittal statements, while other European allies have just flat-out refused to take part in Trump's war.

Trump is, as usual, showing a spectacular amount of doublethink about the war. "We've won," he insists, while floundering around trying to get other countries to help:

Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran's attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe. We have already destroyed 100% of Iran's Military capability, but it's easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are. Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated. In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!

Once again, Trump shows his monumental ignorance about the concept of percentages -- if we've destroyed "100% of Iran's Military capability" then how are they still a threat? But Trump isn't bothered by such blatant contradictions. So he's fallen back on his go-to response to anything negative: issuing threats. If NATO doesn't send some warships to the Strait, they will have a "very bad" future: "If there's no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO." Today he whined: "You mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that's very minor?" He also (wrongly) complained: "The problem with NATO is we'll always be there for them but they'll never be there for us," which ignores the fact that the only time Article V of the NATO treaty was invoked was after 9/11 (when NATO countries joined in our war in Afghanistan).

Then Trump tried a monumental whiplash-inducing spin job: "We don't need anybody; we're the strongest nation in the world," trying to paint his demands for warships as some sort of test for other countries: "I'm almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react." Um... yeah... sure.

Throughout it all he keeps insisting that "numerous countries have told me that they're on the way," without being able to name a single one.

There's an obvious lesson in all of this, but (sadly) it is a lesson Donald Trump is completely incapable of learning. The lesson is that there is a reason for America to treat allies respectfully. There is a reason to build goodwill with them all the time -- not just when they are needed. There is a reason to treat them as valued friends. The reason is that when we need their help, if they consider themselves true partners with the U.S. then they will offer such help willingly and without question. But if all they have gotten from an American president is insults, threats, denigration, and scorn, then they simply will not be willing to have our backs when we do need them. Instead, they will do precisely what they are doing now -- by snubbing such requests and telling us that we're on our own.

Most people learn this basic lesson about nurturing friendship when they are small children. Some people never learn it, though. These are the people whose bullying nature is just too strong for socialization to overcome. Donald Trump is one of those people, which is why the entire rest of the planet is finding it very hard to feel sorry for him right now. No matter how many times his elementary school teachers must have written "Does not play well with others" on his report card, nothing ever changed. And sooner or later, this bullying has real-world consequences -- as Trump is now finding out.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant