Well over a year into Donald Trump’s disruptive second term, few believed the US president could still genuinely shock. But at 8.06am on Tuesday, he did just that, with an apocalyptic threat on Truth Social, to destroy a “whole civilization” in Iran – a country of more than 90 million people. Democrats abandoned their forced restraint and immediately began to call for Trump’s removal from office.
Yet beneath Democrats’ near-universal opposition to what they call the president’s “war of choice” are simmering tensions about the way the US should engage with the world, especially when it comes to the Middle East. Since losing to Trump and his America First agenda in 2024, which promised not to start new wars, leading progressives have urged Democrats to reclaim the “anti-war” mantle.
