After sounding the war drums for weeks with warnings to Iranian leaders, President Donald Trump spent scant time on foreign policy matters during his State of the Union address, with lawmakers saying they expected to hear more from the commander in chief.
Trump bickered and traded verbal jabs with Democrats during a nearly two-hour appearance in the House chamber that was heavy on domestic issues. He asked Congress to end a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, ban lawmaker stock trading, block institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes and codify his stalled health care plan.
What he did not do was ask the House and Senate to pass any new authorizations for him to use U.S. military force against Iran or to achieve his polarizing Western Hemisphere policy goals. In fact, the president spent just a few minutes on foreign policy, spending most of the address telling Americans who have grown frustrated with his economic and domestic policies that they are working — despite his declining poll numbers.
GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who is in a tight reelection fight and said he will join the president Friday at an event in Corpus Christi ahead of Tuesday’s primary day, acknowledged on Wednesday that Trump did not focus very much on global affairs.
“No, I think he understandably was focused more on economic and domestic issues and accomplishments, which I’m glad he’s focused on,” said Cornyn, a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, in an interview on Capitol Hill. “Obviously, the Iran situation is a serious one. But it’s not one that typically moves the dial in terms of elections. And, so, I think the president was focused more on domestic issues.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, was blunt when expressing frustration about Trump’s Iran section.
“He didn’t make the case. People are so confused as to, ‘What’s the guy thinking? Wait, didn’t he just tell us that he had obliterated the program a few months back, and now we’re going to be at war?’” the Virginia senator said Wednesday.
“I’ve got the Virginians who are on the Ford-class [aircraft] carrier. … It’s going to turn into, by early April, it will be the longest carrier deployment in U.S. history. That means these sailors haven’t seen their families. The ship has some maintenance issues that need to be taken care of,” Kaine added. “Why are my Virginia sailors going all around the world at the whim of a president and we’re being told we may be on the verge of a completely unnecessary war?”
Two of Trump’s longtime political rivals, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, noted in separate television interviews that he barely discussed matters of war and diplomacy at all.
Pelosi appeared on CNN moments after Trump departed the House chamber late Tuesday night to quip that he devoted only about a “sentence and a half” to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On Iran, Schumer told MS NOW on Wednesday morning that he “didn’t even talk about it.”
The speaker emerita, who previously was a longtime House Intelligence Committee member, was not far off. It was two sentences, and 75 words over a 10,617-word address, according to Wednesday’s “By the Numbers” newsletter from CQ Roll Call’s Factba.se.
“And we’re working very hard to end the ninth war, the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine, where 25,000 soldiers are dying each and every month. Think of that, 25,000 soldiers are dying a month, a war which would have never happened if I were president, would have never happened,” Trump told lawmakers. “As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.”
‘Scrambling for a rationale’
With that, he was onto a longer, but not beefy, section about Iran that was noticeably brief — especially given the massive amount of U.S. military combat and support hardware he has relocated to the Middle East or nearby areas. His Iran section spanned just over two minutes, according to Factba.se.
He repeated his assessment, which he and other administration officials have contradicted in recent weeks, that U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear targets last year “obliterated” that program. But after criticizing the Iranian government for a deadly crackdown on protests there, he added a new allegation that he appeared to imply would justify a new round of American strikes.
“But [these are] some terrible people. They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” he claimed without providing additional information.
“After [Operation] Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program — in particular, nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “Yet, they continue, starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start all over again. And are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”
Trump claimed that he would prefer on-again, off-again negotiations to produce a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. But he immediately added this hawkish warning: “One thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are, by far, to have a nuclear weapon, can’t let that happen — and no nation should ever doubt America’s resolve.”
The White House had not responded to an inquiry about whether the missile program was targeted during last year’s strikes. But Kaine shook his head when asked about those alleged missiles, saying the line was merely the president “scrambling for a rationale.”
Pelosi on Tuesday night said “we all agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” but she questioned why Trump during his first term withdrew the United States from a Barack Obama-era nuclear pact with Iran only to pursue what has sounded like an almost identical deal in his second term.
“President Obama masterfully, with great virtuosity, had a diplomatic solution to how we would have a nuclear agreement with Iran,” she told CNN. “He rejected that, cast it aside. And now is using the threat of military and the rest. It’s so ridiculous. It’s so inept. It’s so below the quality of leadership that our country is used to [for] 250 years.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Chris Coons said in a Tuesday night statement that “Delawareans and Americans across our nation who believe our country is on the wrong track looked for reasons for hope from President Trump and found none.”
“If you’re a small-business owner struggling with President Trump’s chaotic tariffs or a military family with a loved one deployed near Iran, I cannot imagine feeling better after listening to this speech,” the Delaware Democrat added. “Instead, you heard more bluster and empty promises from an unpopular president.”
Asked if he wants Trump to work harder on justifying possible Iran strikes to Americans, Cornyn replied: “He doesn’t need to sell me because Iran, the regime, has American blood on its hands, and has been an enemy to Israel and the United States since 1979.”
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