Donald Trump ordered the United States to attack Iran because we had to destroy its nuclear weapons program. Or because Iran refused to make a deal. Or because Iran was about to attack somebody. Or because Iran threatened the United States. Or to replace Iran’s hardline theocracy with democracy. Or to replace Iran’s current ruler with someone we like. Or a combination of these reasons.
Trump has offered all those reasons to explain why he involved the United States in a war with Iran, and not one of those reasons makes any sense.
To destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program? Trump has been telling the world for the last eight months that his bomb raid on Iran did that last year.
Iran refused to make a deal? Everybody else involved in the negotiations said progress was being made. Besides, Trump destroyed President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran that was working so well, and that’s what led us into this mess.
Iran was about to attack someone? Who? Why? Evidence? All unanswered questions.
Iran threatened the United States? Really? Iran? Threaten us? What possible threat could Iran be to a nation that not only has the world’s most powerful military but is protected by friends on two sides and by oceans on the other two? How could Iran threaten us?
As for replacing the Iranian regime or its ruler, neither is a reason to start a war, especially one for which he has no plan on how to end. Not to mention whether war is legal in the first place.
Yet, Republicans in Congress fear him so much they just gave him a blank check to keep on warring. They wouldn’t even hold a hearing before rubberstamping his request. It was the eighth consecutive time the Republican-controlled Congress has voted no to limiting Trump’s use of military force abroad.
That war has been expensive, and very soon it will become very much more expensive. The think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the United States spent $3.7 billion in the war’s first 100 hours alone, $3.5 billion of which was not even budgeted (which is why Trump had to ask Congress for more money in the first place, thus forcing the vote).
Apparently, Trump is just getting started. While air campaigns typically slow down after an intense early period of a conflict, that’s not happening in Iran. The reverse is. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the bombardment is “about to surge dramatically”, entailing “more fighter squadrons … more defensive capabilities” and “more bomber pulses more frequently” – which means he is about to substantially increase the already colossal cost of this war.
Furthermore, Trump declared on Friday that he will settle for nothing short of “unconditional surrender” by Iran, and that he “must personally approve” of Iran’s next leader, a combination of which military experts say could portend a much longer war and involve American boots on the ground.
Which he appears preparing to do. Hegseth has refused to rule out the possibility of boots on the ground, and the Army just abruptly canceled, without explaining why, a major training exercise for the unit that would be responsible for planning and executing such an event: the headquarters element of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C. The unit is an elite paratrooper unit that specializes in ground combat and a range of other missions that would be useful in Iran. All this has spurred speculation in the Defense Department that ground troops may be sent to Iran.
The good news in all this is that it could, and probably will, backfire in Trump’s face.
His forced request to ask Congress for more money gave Democrats an opening to howl in righteous outrage over the constitutional questions, costs and purposes of a war on Iran. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) probably expressed the Democrats’ position best when she wrote:
The Trump Administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn’t given a single clear reason for this war, and he seems to have no plan for how to end it, either.
But Republicans wouldn’t even hold a hearing before rubberstamping Trump’s request, which means that they and they alone now own responsibility for a reckless war that has no purpose or end point, and campaigning for the 2026 midterms is now under way.
The war doesn’t have popular support, either. It has never been popular with Americans. All the important polls (with one notable exception) show the war’s popularity is underwater anywhere from 10 to 18 points. The one notable exception was a poll by Trump-favorite Fox News that showed a 50-50 split.
And that already-low support is almost certain to sink lower. Cost-of-living concerns and inflation are already haunting U.S. citizens, and now rising gas prices due to the conflict probably will increase that pressure.
The war also is affecting the Stock Market. As of Friday’s close, war concerns had forced stocks down to their lowest level this year. And data on Friday showed the labor market unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs last month, renewing questions about whether the labor market might be starting to crack.
Trump isn’t getting much help from our European allies, either. When he threatened to cut off all trade with Spain because of its opposition to the war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ignored him. And French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been cautious about criticizing Trump, went on national television to convey his support of Sánchez, saying that the attacks “were conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of,” and that the 27 EU countries should “unite in hitting back against Washington if Trump delivers on his trade threat.”
Nevertheless, European nations may object but they cannot ignore the dangers faced by their own citizens in the Mideast, and it is their duty to protect them. So, France just deployed an aircraft carrier to the Middle East and other European countries are weighing their options. The war spreads.
Heather Cox Richardson, historian, author and writer of the Letters from an American newsletter, wrapped it up well when she wrote these words:
Trump has taken us into a needless, illegal, open-ended, and chaotic war with the least capable set of advisers in modern presidential history. Those who support democracy, a stable international order, and diplomacy should praise undaunted, unbowed, and unwavering politicians and international figures such as Sánchez. Those who blindly mouth Trump’s incoherent, shifting explanations, treat American troops as expendable fodder, and blindly follow Trump into a quagmire will face history’s wrath.
The war also is even dividing Trump’s “America First” base, people who remember that he promised them in his presidential campaign that he would not enter “foreign wars.”
So yes, Trump continues to go down, down, down, and this war might be the final nail in his coffin. All we need to do is keep on doing what we’re doing and we will return democracy to our nation. We just need to keep turning out, speaking up, letting it be known we will never quit, and, above all, voting.
We are winning. We will win.
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A FEW RELATED RESOURCES curated by the folks at GrowPurpose.com
- How Congress Set the Stage for Trump’s Illegal War in Iran
- Trump’s War With Iran Isn’t Just Reckless. It’s an Impeachable Abuse of Office.
- “He Could Be Impeached.” Donald Trump’s Base Revolts Over War With Iran
- Your Questions Answered: Can Congress Stop President Trump’s Illegal War Against Iran?
- Spain Shows Europe How to Oppose Trump’s Illegal War in Iran
