An Iranian woman attends a memorial in Tehran. Credit: Getty Images One of the most solemn responsibilities of this president, or any president, is to explain to the American people why he is sending our military into harm’s way. And just as important is to explain why and how our service members were killed in the line of duty.
Donald Trump has failed in both of those duties since he started a war of choice with Iran three days ago.
After failing to address the nation as every president has done since it became technologically possible, the president finally spoke on camera for just six minutes on Monday. It was a rambling preamble to an already planned White House event.
In remarks insulting to the intelligence of anyone following the events of the past three days, not to mention to the families of military members killed, Trump oddly segued from talk of honoring those who died to the curtains in the East Room of the White House and ballroom construction.
Among the most troublesome things about Trump’s despotic regime is all we don’t know.
The need for credible information about the war in Iran can not be overstated, and yet we are getting almost nothing from the White House and an administration not known for its truthfulness. How can we believe a word they say when the agenda has long been freewheeling falsehoods?
The paltry communications from Trump and the Department of Defense have been scattershot and contradictory.
Instead of a live address, shortly after hostilities began, Trump posted an 8-minute authoritarian-esque video on his own social media platform from Mar-a-Lago. This way, reporters couldn’t question his motives live. A second short video followed and was no more enlightening.
The White House did not send proxies to the Sunday morning talk shows to make the case for war. The famously available president did not hold a press gaggle on Air Force One on the way back to Washington from Palm Beach, nor did he answer shouted questions as he entered the White House on Sunday night.
The president did take quick calls from more than a dozen reporters, spinning different narratives, sometimes to the same people. On one of those calls with reporters from The New York Times he laid out three competing options for an Iranian endgame.
At one point he recommended complete regime change, saying the Iranian people should overthrow their government. “That’s going to be up to them about whether or not they do. They’ve been talking about it for years, so now they’ll obviously have an opportunity.”
He also suggested the Iranian military hand over their weapons to the Iranian people.
He then said he would remove the leaders but keep the government, à la Venezuela. “What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” Trump said. So regime realignment but not change? He went on to say there are “three very good choices,” to take over for Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who was assassinated early Sunday.
Later, he had to amend that suggestion. “The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” he told Jonathan Karl of ABC News in another phone call. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”
None of these options was accompanied by an executable plan.
Early Monday morning, video surfaced of an American F-15E fighter jet crashing in Kuwait. U.S. Central Command said it and two additional F-15s were mistakenly downed by Kuwaiti air defenses and that the six pilots ejected safely. This explanation rings hollow considering the sophisticated technology onboard the aircraft. But that’s all anyone is saying.
At 8 o’clock Monday morning, more than two days after the aggressive bombardment of Iran began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, held the administration’s first press conference. But remember, this is the new Pentagon press pool, where MAGA-friendly reporters who submit pre-selected questions are usually favored.
“Hegseth repeatedly scolded the new Pentagon reporters (all from friendly outlets) who asked about the strategy in Iran. Which explains why he doesn’t hold briefings: he doesn’t believe Americans deserve to know what the U.S. military is doing,” Aidan McLaughlin of Vanity Fair wrote on social media.
While Hegseth was gaslighting the American people, the media was reporting the first U.S. casualties. “We didn’t start this war,” he demanded, and emphatically stated, with no evidence, that the reason the U.S. attacked Iran is because they were building nuclear weapons.
As of this writing, six American servicemen have been killed and five seriously wounded. Trump responded by saying, “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.”
No, Mr. President, that’s the way you have decided it is.
The death toll for the Iranians is far worse. American and Israeli forces have killed scores of Iranian civilians, including 115 children when a girl’s elementary school was bombed.
The possibility for a full-blown regional war is acute. Iran’s retaliation has been swift and widespread.
They have attacked U.S. targets in ten countries including Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Iranian missiles have hit an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, the main airport in Kuwait, the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and a British air force base in Cyprus. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group has launched missiles into Israel from neighboring Lebanon.
A lack of information breeds chaos and fear. A new CNN poll indicates that nearly six in ten Americans disapprove of the decision to go to war with Iran. Financial markets are down, and energy prices are surging. You will soon see the price of war at the pump.
Making no effort to quell fears or calm markets, Trump said the airstrikes could continue for four to five more weeks and told CNN “the big wave” is yet to come, though some reports question whether the U.S. has enough defensive weapons to sustain such a prolonged campaign. If he ever took questions from reporters in good faith, one might ask, “how is it possible that we could launch a war unprepared?”
This self-proclaimed “peace president” has ordered more strikes against other countries than any modern American leader. In just over a year he has attacked seven sovereign nations. The White House insists that Trump always exhausts diplomacy before attacking, though his brand of diplomacy looks a lot like ultimatum theater.
In the ultimate “ends justify the means” scenario, Trump believes the path to peace is paved with violence and force. About this new Iran war, the explanations are weak, the contradictions abundant, and they come from a regime that has proven to be untrustworthy in matters of life and death.
Citizens would do well to keep in mind the old saying, “The first casualty of war is the truth.”
Please consider supporting my team’s efforts to protect our democracy through the power of independent journalism by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s one of the best deals on Substack. I thank you for your support!
No matter how you subscribe, I thank you for reading.
Stay Steady,
Dan
