WASHINGTON — For a man with an awful lot of explaining to do, Donald Trump was still struggling on Sunday night to convey the purpose and extent of his military campaign in Iran to the American people.
Shortly before departing from his Mar-A-Lago resort, from where he authorised his attack on Iran late on Friday, the US leader told Americans that the nation is grieving over the loss of the first three American service personnel, seemingly seemingly killed as the result of an Iranian missile strike over the weekend.
Calling the troops “American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation”, he insisted he will “continue our righteous mission for which they gave their lives. Our resolve and likewise, that of Israel, has never been stronger”, he insisted.
But he also warned Americans to brace themselves for more fatalities before his war-of-choice is over.
“Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends”, he said, sounding resigned to the losses that the conflict may yet incur. “That’s the way it is”, he said, in a rhetorical shrugging of the shoulders.
But the US leader already knows that the country is not necessarily in the mood for scores of its warriors to return home in body bags. A Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out over the weekend showed that only one in four Americans supports the president’s decision to strike Iran militarily, and in a canary-in-the-coalmine finding, as many as 23% of Republicans believe that Trump is “too willing to use military force to advance US interests”.
Those Americans include many prominent figures within Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, and adherents of his “America First” philosophy.
Donald Trump authorised his attack on Iran from his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida (Photo: The White House/Social Media/Handout via Reuters)The podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a long-time critic of any plan to wage war on Iran, told ABC News that the weekend’s events were “absolutely disgusting and evil”. Last week, before the air strikes began, he warned his followers that the US military even lacks the armaments necessary to carry out regime change in Iran.
“We don’t have the stockpiles and we don’t have the necessary industrial capacity to replace them quickly”, he told his viewers last week. “We’re not in a position to have a lengthy engagement, and everyone at the Pentagon who is gaming this out understands that”, said Carlson, who is so close to Trump that he was at the White House last week conferring with him.
Maga figures who have already broken with Trump also flayed the president, accusing him of abandoning his promise to avoid entangling American troops in “forever” wars in the Middle East.
Former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is increasingly defining herself as the authentic leader of Maga, called the American troop deaths “absolutely unnecessary and…unacceptable”. She poured scorn on the president’s claim that Iran was a fortnight away from acquiring a nuclear weapon, noting that his own White House still officially claims that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were “obliterated” in last July’s bunker-busting bomb attacks by the US and Israel.
“I did not campaign for this. I did not donate money for this. I did not vote for this in elections or Congress…this is not what we thought Maga is supposed to be”, she fumed.
A missile being launched from from a US Navy ship in support of Operation Epic Fury (U.S. Central Command via AP)Right-wing podcaster Millie Weaver, known to the Maga faithful as “Millenial Minnie”, posted on ‘X’ that “I don’t remember voting to ‘Free Iran’. I voted to Make America Great Again”. Libertarian influencer Liam McCollum, argued that “Trump’s Iran War is an utter betrayal of his base, and all the people who opposed him in 2016 and 2024 are cheering”.
In an unusual move, the administration did not offer America’s Sunday television talk shows a single Cabinet member to provide commentary on the conflict, the reasons for it, and a vision of the president’s endgame. Instead, loyal Republicans in the Senate parroted talking points provided by the White House.
Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas ensured viewers of CBS that “the President has been clear that what we should expect to see is an extended air and naval campaign that’s designed not only to continue to set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but most importantly to destroy its vast missile arsenal”. American boots-on-the-ground were off the table, he said. “The president has no plan for any kind of large scale ground force inside Iran”.
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But Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, also on CBS, was forced to concede that he does not believe his own president’s claims that Iran was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon. “I don’t have present day intelligence on what progress they had made…since we bombed their facilities,” he said, referring to last July’s attacks. “I have no indication that they were anywhere close to getting nuclear weapons, because our bombing was devastating”.
In his Sunday statement, Trump insisted that his efforts to unseat the Iranian regime are “right and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats”. He claimed Iran has spent the last 50 years attacking the United States…We are the world’s greatest and most powerful nation, so we can do something about what they do”.
But he did not divulge precisely what that “something” looks like in terms of concrete arrangements for Iran’s future dispensation. The president failed to elucidate a strategy, nor find the language to persuade his detractors that the loss of life in Iran is worthwhile.
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