Iran war: Donald Trump has never been a planner, and that’s deadly
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, shared on social media Tuesday night takeaways from the classified briefing the White House shared with him and other lawmakers about the Iran war.
“I obviously can’t disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are,” he noted, emphasizing that regime change in Iran is no longer in the cards. “They will spend hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars, kill a bunch of Americans, and a hardline regime – probably a MORE anti-American hardline regime – will still be in charge.”
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Murphy also said President Donald Trump’s administration no longer intends to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Instead, he favors eliminating missiles, boats, and drone factories. “The question that stumps them is: What happens when you stop the bombing and they restart production?” Murphy said. he shared. “They hinted at more bombing. Of course, that means war forever.”
A final statement from Murphy: He claimed that the White House has “NO PLAN” on how to secure the Strait of Hormuz for the safe passage of tankers and other ships. Approximately 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait. As my colleague Javier Blas recently observed, Trump has days, not weeks, to solve this problem. Otherwise, oil prices, which were around $71 per barrel before the war started and settled in a low range of $90, will rise, causing turmoil.
The potential human, economic and geopolitical costs of this demolition derby are harrowing and dangerous, but none of this should come as a surprise. “NO PLAN” could be turned into a billboard mounted above the 90,000-square-foot ballroom Trump wants to add to the White House. His hasty, turbulent and open-ended investigation into the Iran war so far is entirely in character. Heir to a vast fortune, haphazard developer, dysfunctional casino impresario, reality TV enthusiast, ubiquitous self-promoter and tectonic political force, the president has spent most of his nearly 80 years flying without a map.Also Read: Iran lists three conditions to end war with US and Israel
The implications of Trump’s incompetence were less serious before he entered the Oval Office. His actions now often engage people, civil society and livelihoods. With great power, as the saying goes, comes great responsibility. It also requires versatility, rationality, insight and excellent planning. Planning can be tedious and time-consuming, but it is everything. Devotion to planning separates working adults from children and effective strategists from erratic firethrowers.
Republicans supported the Iran war and the president’s assurance that the war “will be over pretty quickly.” They rejected the bill that would stop the attacks and appear to take the White House at its word that the United States “had a strong game plan” before partnering with Israel on bombing raids. Trump fed the narrative. “I have a plan for everything, okay?” When asked recently by a journalist about the effects of rising oil prices, he said: “I have a plan for everything. You will be very happy.”
Also Read: Iran has Trump on the side of Hormuz, which is squeezing him. TACO again?
If Iran’s nuclear and military capabilities were completely and finally destroyed, many people would be truly happy and the world would be a better place. Promoting permanent regime change there would also be welcome. Iran exports terrorism as well as oil, routinely holds the Middle East at alarming crossroads, and suppresses democracy at home. Should Trump pull success in Iran out of his hat, bravo.
But reality intervenes. Completely neutralizing Iran does not seem to be around the corner, and a new radical leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has replaced his late father as the country’s religious leader. The Strait of Hormuz remains a choke point. Trump, who rarely takes advice, is listening to a group of amateurs, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East; and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump and his supporters like to portray the president as a great strategist. “As always, the boss in Iran is playing three-dimensional chess,” senior trade adviser and former jailbird Peter Navarro told Newsmax.
Unfortunately, this is clearly and incorrigibly wrong.
While some political analysts and other observers have spent the last decade trying to reassure themselves and the world by spotting the countless “strategies” in Trump’s tragicomic detours, Trump has never been a skilled or dedicated strategist. He certainly has goals, and these often take the form of self-preservation or self-aggrandizement. In this context, a simple explanation for his self-described “trip” to Iran is that it appealed to him as a flex of power and that he was unconcerned about existential implications or how to put the pieces back together once the bombs stopped falling.
But having goals doesn’t mean having a strategy. Trump portrays himself as a great dealmaker, even though his business career has been littered with bankruptcies. He says he is a wise steward of the economy, even though he has pursued self-defeating and damaging tariff policies. He promised to right-size the federal government but instead gave birth to the clown rodeo known as DOGE. He promised to close America’s porous borders, which he did, but then launched a deadly and bizarre deportation campaign that harmed communities across the country. He wants America to be more affordable for struggling voters, but now he’s waging a war that could hurt their wallets.
None of this is the work of a cunning and determined strategist who comes up with well-laid plans. Unfortunately, this is the hallmark of someone who is forever haunted by the massive wreckage he leaves behind.
Two months ago, the New York Times asked Trump whether he sensed the existence of forces that could limit his global powers.
“Yes, there is one thing. My morals,” replied the man who was not known to have much morals or ability to regulate himself. “My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
He also said, “I don’t need international law.” “I don’t want to hurt people.”
Meanwhile, seven US soldiers are dead, scores are injured, many more are in danger, and hundreds of Iranians, including schoolchildren, are dead.
The consequences of this war will reverberate for years, and U.S. national security may ultimately be weakened. But don’t expect Trump, who has secured several draft delays to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, to outline a credible plan to stop the chaos and dangers it poses in and around Iran.
