WASHINGTON: Donald Trump plunged the United States into the most significant conflict in decades because of a “feeling.” It is not his political opponents who say this, but the White House itself.
Throughout the first week of the war with Iran, the US president has prioritized impulse and emotion over explanations and reasoning.
“I hope you’re impressed,” Trump, a former reality TV host, said at a news conference. ABC Reporter Thursday. “How do you like the performance?”
Official government accounts post clips on social media that present the military operation like a video game, often with pointed captions that would be suitable for a blockbuster war film.
“This could be the first war ever started based on vibrations,” American comedian and talk show host Jimmy Fallon joked this week.
On Wednesday, reporters bombarded White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt with questions about the motivations for the US military intervention – which Trump oversaw from his luxury Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
She responded that the president acted because he “had a good feeling that the Iranian regime was going to strike American assets and our personnel in the region.”
“Inconsistent, immoral, arrogant”
Experts said the Trump administration has taken a new approach in how it seeks to justify and communicate military action to the public.
Sean Aday, a public relations professor at George Washington University, said he had “never seen a worse wartime message from an American administration.”
“It has been a combination of elements that are inconsistent, immoral, arrogant, amateurish and sometimes doctored in pure fabrication,” he said. AFP.
Aday compared it to former President George W. Bush’s attempts to justify the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, whose administration spent “nearly a year and a half trying to persuade the public that it was necessary.”
Richard Haass, a former US diplomat, pointed out that Trump had largely ignored formal national security processes, “after spending most of the last year gutting the national security apparatus.”
The National Security Council, a body that helps the president shape his diplomatic and military strategy, has been significantly reduced since Trump returned to power in January 2025.
Marco Rubio now combines the functions of secretary of state and national security adviser, previously separate positions.
Contradictory remarks
Trump has remained vague on the reasons for his entry into war with Iran and the objectives pursued.
Instead of holding press conferences, he gave several brief telephone interviews with journalists, producing a patchwork of contradictory comments.
And while members of his cabinet say Washington is not seeking regime change, the US president has insisted he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader after the martyrdom of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump also dismissed economic concerns related to the conflict, which have driven up the price of gasoline — a potential vulnerability for his Republican Party heading into this year’s midterm elections.
A poll published Wednesday by BNC shows that 52% of American voters oppose military action in Iran.
In contrast, the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 was met with strong approval and public opinion initially supported the offensive launched in Iraq.
But on both Afghanistan and Iraq, negative views grew as the conflicts dragged on.
