As I write this on Day Four of the war in Iran, I have a few updates:
— We still don’t know why we went to war, although it’s unfair to say Donald Trump hasn’t offered a rationale. By my count, he has offered at least a dozen of them, which seem to change according to the day, the time and the audience. Not that they make any sense or show even a shred of consistency, but still, we have heard rationales aplenty.
— We still don’t know when or how the war would end. Trump says it would take four or five more weeks of bombing, maybe more. After which we would have accomplished — what? I thought when Israel killed the Ayatollah that Trump could have declared victory and gone home. In any case, the American people are obviously wondering because according to polling — here and here — they overwhelmingly object to Trump’s what-is-it-good-for war. And the polls might get worse when more people hear that Trump is saying he’s not afraid to “put boots on the ground.” Or when it’s pointed out that Trump, the peace president, has bombed seven countries since returning to office.
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SUBSCRIBE— On Day Three, Trump told the New York Post that he wasn’t worried about the polls, whether or not they were accurate. “Look, whether polling is low or not, I think the polling is probably fine. But it’s not a question of polling. You cannot let Iran, who’s a nation that has been run by crazy people, have a nuclear weapon,” Trump continued. “I think people are very impressed with what is happening, actually. … I think it’s a silent — if you did a real poll, the silent poll — and it’s like a silent majority.”
— On Day Three, Marco Rubio said that Israel was going to attack Iran whether we joined or not, which would lead to risks of Iran attacking American assets in the region. Rubio: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” So what choice did Trump have but to join Israel?
— On Day Three, it seemed like there might have been other choices. Couldn’t Trump, who was in the midst of negotiations with Iran, simply have warned them that if Israel attacked that Trump would join in only if American assets were threatened? Was Rubio admitting that Trump had no control of what Bibi Netanyahu might do, in spreading chaos across the Middle East? Whose dog was wagging whose tail?
— On Day Four, Trump shot down that theory — maybe because it caused several leading MAGA minds to spontaneously combust. Or maybe because it made Trump look weak. You may remember Trump ran in 2024 as the peace candidate, arguing that Kamala Harris would send your children off to die. You may remember that Trump has spent decades opposing U.S. engagement in Middle East wars. So, Trump’s reply from the Oval Office: “We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack,” he said, adding, “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we’ve had a very, very powerful impact.”
— On Day Four, Trump returned to regime change, saying the Iranian leader was a “bad seed” — he was, and we should shed no tears now that he is gone — and should have been taken down years ago. This from the man who has repeatedly opposed any war in Iran, unless it’s the recent bombing war with Israel to, uh, obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. It might be noted that Iran’s response against U.S. assets the first time around was extremely limited. It should also be noted that Trump told us this at his second inaugural address: “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
— Over the last Few Days, some of Trump’s supporters in Congress have said — I swear in the name of George Orwell this is true — that we’re not actually at war. Because, apparently, no one has declared war, so it can’t be a war. We should mention, I guess, that no one has declared war because Trump, as usual, didn’t even mention the war to Congress, which alone has the constitutional power to declare war. As conservative New York Times columnist David French wrote, that congressional power is not a “technicality.”
— On Day Three, Pete Hegseth, in his way, by which I mean by barking at reporters, said that the war was not being fought in order to effect regime change, although, as he admitted, that’s just what happened. His words: “It turns out the regime who chanted ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ was gifted death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so-called ‘regime change war,’ but the regime sure did change.”
— On Day Three, Hegseth went further, saying that Trump opposes so-called forever wars and that we shouldn’t expect one under his command. Why? Because previous presidents were dumb and Trump is smart. And, yes, the Secretary of, uh, War said we were at war. You know who else calls it a war? That’s right: The Warrior-in-Chief, who is busily threatening a land war. Would this come to be known as a classic blunder?
— On Day Three, during a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House, Trump spoke briefly about the war in Iran and then turned to other issues on his mind — like the gold White House drapes and, of course, the new ballroom.
— In the middle of the night between Day One and Day Two, Trump (or maybe an unnamed staffer) had written this on Truth Social: “This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country. Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves.”
— On Day Four, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say Trump, uh, forgot to mention that the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), along with Iranian paramilitary troops, had killed 30,000 Iranian protesters. And now they’re going to “peacefully merge” with “Iranian Patriots” because we’ve offered them “immunity”? I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Trump has hardly mentioned the idea since.
— On Day Four, Trump said again he was hoping that someone from inside Iranian leadership could succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — but admitted that his first three choices had been killed when Khamenei was killed. And his second three choices have also been killed. Summing up, Trump said, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead.” This isn’t just the fog of war at work. It’s an indictment of the lack of planning for what happens after the last bomb falls. As Trump said when asked what the worst case scenario might be, he did make this admission: “I guess the worst case would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person. Right, that could happen? We don’t want that to happen. It would probably be the worst, you go through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who’s no better.”
— I can’t remember which day it was, but Trump has repeatedly blamed the war on Iran, saying the threat of an attack on the United States was “imminent.” Of course, it is not. Iran has no ICBMs that could reach the United States and won’t, CIA analysts say, for at least a decade. Just as Iran isn’t close to developing a nuclear bomb. And even if Iran could attack the U.S. directly, Trump would go all Dr. Strangelove on Iran, which would be reduced to rubble by a full-blown American counterattack.
— On Day Four, the war is spreading dramatically. Six Americans have been killed so far. As Trump put it, that’s what happens when you go to war. He also said, “We will avenge them” and that there will “likely” be more American deaths. American embassies have been hit, and now three of them are closed. Iranian drones and missiles have struck a range of targets throughout the Middle East. Israel is at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, meaning much of the oil exports from the Middle East have been cut off. Trump now says the U.S. Navy could escort tankers through the strait. Not incidentally, the price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has risen by 11 cents since the start of the war.
— As of Day Four, Trump has still not spoken about the war to the American public from the Oval Office, as any president not named Trump would have done. He did little before the war began to explain to the public why such a war might be necessary. He’s done little after the war began. What we know is Trump alone decided it. Like a king of ancient times, as several politicians have said? Like a certain Trump BFF dictator? Has he not spoken to the people because he can’t figure out what exactly to tell them? Or because he doesn’t feel the need?
— Meanwhile, an existential question: Whom did Trump describe as “crazy” in the last week or so — those who have run Iran or those in the Democratic Party? If you answered both, you know just how crazy, and dangerous, this situation is.— And Now: Some Trump critics are saying he started the war as a distraction from , say, the Epstein papers. I think, as one late-night comic said, it’s more likely he’ll soon release some unredacted Epstein files …as a distraction from the war.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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