After week of war and political upheaval, Trump remains defiant as ever

Tensions over the US war in Iran have risen steadily in recent days.

Surveys showed the campaign was successful not very popular. A complete wing of Trump’s MAGA base criticized this In a clear departure from Trump’s long-espoused “America First” mantra. Leaders within the Trump administration have pushed back against claims that this is about regime change, framing it instead as a necessary response to imminent threats.

Trump, meanwhile, struck a decidedly defiant tone; He offered few of the reassurances or rationalizations that past presidents had offered in the early stages of the war and appeared as if he were deeply uncomfortable with being at war.

He laments America’s losses but also seems to shrug them off as the simple cost of war, along with the additional deaths he expects to come and possible attacks on the US homeland: “Some people will die.”

He is openly flirting with taking over Cuba, too, while ignoring concerns that the war will turn into another endless Middle Eastern quagmire.

Trump undermines his administration’s message that the war is not about regime change. wrote on social media After Friday, he said that there would be “no agreement” with Iran without “UNCONDITIONAL SURROUNDING” and that the new Iranian leadership would be “ACCEPTABLE” to him.

Giving his thumbs up to those who have left “America First,” he said the United States and its allies will “work tirelessly” to make Iran “bigger, better and stronger economically than ever before,” adding: “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).”

Over the past week, Trump has incited or been forced into a dizzying array of political threats. In addition to attacking Iran, he also fired the Homeland Security secretary responsible for his signature immigration campaign, and faces detailed new allegations that he and Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted a child — which he has denied. chief prosecutor was summoned It has also been said by other Republicans in Congress who have watched job numbers in America fall as gasoline prices rise.

Yet Trump has managed to avoid complex questions about these issues—the most pressing questions before his administration—even as Democrats and some of his own supporters have lashed out at them.

“I’ve seen many Presidents fail to deliver on promises, but I’ve never seen a President knowingly do the exact opposite of everything promised. Prices, Epstein, wars. He’s absolutely running to betray his voters” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote to x.

“This is Israel’s war, this is not America’s war. This war is not being waged in the name of America’s national security objectives, to make the United States safer or richer.” said Tucker CarlsonHe is one of Trump’s longtime allies.

Carlson said Trump committed U.S. forces to fight in Iran for no other reason than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “demanded it,” even though it was “absolutely not a good idea for the United States” and the Trump administration has “no real plan” to replace the Iranian leadership it has now ousted.

The White House broadly defended Trump’s actions in statements to The Times on Friday.

Regarding Iran, it was stated that Trump “bravely protected the USA against the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime, and this is America’s first example.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said Trump “has assembled the most capable and competent cabinet in history” and “I continue to have confidence in his Administration.”

On the economy, they said the Trump administration “is doing its part to unleash robust, private-sector-led economic growth through tax cuts and deregulation” and that Trump has “already initiated robust action” to control oil prices even in the midst of the Iran war. It was stated that the latest allegations disclosed in the Epstein files were “completely unfounded accusations and supported by zero reliable evidence.”

Trump also spoke to defend his administration’s handling of various crises facing it, but not with the kind of detail and seriousness with which wartime presidents usually speak, experts said.

At her only public event on Friday — a nearly two-hour roundtable about college athletics with national leaders and sports officials — she mocked media members who asked about Iran and Noem.

“What a stupid question to ask right now,” he said when asked about reports that Russia was helping Iran target and attack Americans there. “We’re talking about something else.”

When asked why he spent so much time talking about college sports when so much was going on in the country and the world, Trump briefly mentioned Iran before ending the event; He said “people are very impressed with our military” and that the United States is now “more respected than ever.”

Jennifer Mercieca, a political historian and professor of communications at Texas A&M and author of “Presidential Demagogue: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” said she was surprised Trump didn’t make a stronger case for going to war in Iran during his last State of the Union address, and that he hasn’t been more aggressive in advocating for the war since then, including using conventional language to promote American values ​​around the world.

“This to me is surprising and unusual compared to other presidents who have tried to drag a country in a similar situation into war,” he said.

Also unusual low public support Since World War II, given the initially high level of public approval of the U.S. war effort, there has been a lack of support for war,” Mercieca said.

Mercieca said he wondered whether there was a correlation between Trump’s failure to make a stronger case for the war and the public’s low approval of the war, or perhaps whether there was a correlation between the low approval and the flippant portrayal of the war by others in the administration, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as a brutal campaign of destruction and revenge.

He said Hegseth and others displayed “a lack of rudeness, honor or dignity” [in] the way they behave, especially when talking about war and human life.”

Jack Rakove, professor emeritus of history and political science at Stanford University, said Trump’s stance since and before he first entered politics is in keeping with his character because he “can never take responsibility for anything that looks like a mistake” and is “obsessed with the idea of ​​appearing tough and tough-minded.”

Rakove said he does not believe the Epstein files were launched by Trump specifically as a distraction from the war in Iran, as some critics have suggested. As of Thursday, those files contained newly released FBI transcripts of several interviews in which a woman accused Trump and Epstein of sexual assault during her childhood in the 1980s. His accusations have not been substantiated.

But Rakove said he wondered to what extent Trump was consciously pushing for chaos to ensure that no issue that was politically damaging to him would attract public attention for too long.

Mercieca said Trump has always been “uniquely good at controlling public speech,” but that power was recently tested by the Epstein files, which attracted public attention even though Trump had repeatedly said “we’ve got to give up on this, we’ve got to stop talking about this, he’s exonerated.”

He said Trump’s instinct to move forward aggressively now, despite waning support for his economic policies, immigration policies and war in Iran, may be related to his desire to draw people’s attention to his agenda, but is also consistent with his long-standing desire to make history, including making big moves.

“I think he’s trying to make his mark in the White House, I think he’s trying to make his mark on the nation, I think he’s trying to make his mark on the world, and I think war is a way that leaders have traditionally done that throughout history,” he said.