At his press conference Monday, Donald Trump sought to regain the narrative around a lightning-fast campaign of bombings in Iran that have so far achieved some individual successes while failing to dislodge a government that U.S. officials believe is an existential threat to its neighbors.
Instead, his main accomplishment was defining the image of his wartime leadership for Americans in a way Republicans used to find distasteful as he continued to spout unproven theories and suggestions for the war’s cause.
As he spoke with reporters, Trump showed that he was more than happy to take credit for America’s military successes against a foe that supposedly presented a great threat to the U.S. military, despite the uneven casualty numbers.
"We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete," the president told reporters. "Together with our Israeli partners, we're crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force.”
Yet, at the same time, Trump was wholly unwilling to link himself to any negative consequences of the conflict, including economic hardship and any unintended bloody civilian consequences of U.S. bombing campaigns.
During questions from reporters, the president refused to take blame for a Tomahawk missile believed to have been fired by U.S. forces in the initial bombing campaign, which struck a girl’s school in Iran and killed 175 people, most of them children.
Instead, he suggested bizarrely that Iran may have fired the missile on its own base. The U.S. is the only military force in the conflict with the capacity to fire the Tomahawk, which is a ship-based missile. Fracturing his team’s response, Trump veered off into conspiratorial thinking that top U.S. officials haven’t been willing to back up.
"I will say that the Tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, it's sold and used by other countries, you know that," said the president to a press corps that already knew Iran did not possess Tomahawks.
"And whether it's Iran, who also has some Tomahawks,” Trump falsely continued, “they wish they had more, but, whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a Tomahawk — a Tomahawk is very generic, it's sold to other countries. But that's being investigated right now."
Video obtained by The New York Times and other outlets shows the apparently American strike hitting a Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval base and the school building next to it.
Even under pointed questioning from a reporter cutting through the absurdity of the president’s explanation, Trump refused to admit any U.S. — or personal — responsibility and said that he’d wait to see what a supposed investigation carried out by the Pentagon determined regarding fault for the strike.
“I just don’t know enough about it,” the president insisted under further questioning from a reporter.
Democrats issued pointed criticisms in response to that exchange.
“Trump is lying through his teeth,” claimed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “The claim is beyond asinine. Again, he says whatever pops into his head no matter what the truth is. And we all know he lies but on something as formidable as this, it’s appalling. No other leader in the administration, not even Pete Hegseth, who does whatever Trump wants, is claiming Iranian missiles did this.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, added: “He & Sec. Hegseth are responsible for the killing of these 175 people, most of them children. They must be held accountable.”
On Monday the president also tried to focus on an issue some of his savviest advisers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have used as an explanation for the U.S. war effort: that Iran’s ballistic missile threat was reaching an unacceptable strength and needed to be deal with.
Trump, however, repeated his claim that an Iranian attack on U.S. forces or their allies was imminent, something his administration has presented no evidence for. Iran was not engaged in hostilities prior to the U.S-Israeli bombing campaign, and Iranian diplomats met with U.S. officials in Geneva to discuss terms for a new agreement with the Trump administration when the attacks were ordered.
“They were going to take over the Middle East and they were going to try and destroy Israel,” the president insisted. Once again, none of his other advisers have made this same assertion.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt almost seemed to try and wipe away her own responsibility for her boss’ words, telling reporters on Tuesday that Trump’s view on this subject was “a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the U.S.”
The knowledge that it was a “feeling” that has now led the U.S. into a war that is costing taxpayers nearly a billion dollars a day and has already resulted in the deaths of seven Americans may not be particularly comforting to the more than half of registered voters who said in a Quinnipiac poll on Tuesday that they opposed the war with Iran, compared to around 4 in 10 who support it. Those numbers could easily get worse if economic fallout from the war continues, including the strain put on oil and gas prices by Iran’s attempts to mine the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump and his top aides issued angry threats to Iran regarding the waterway on Tuesday even as Leavitt insisted, as her boss did Monday, that soaring gas prices would actually soon plunge to new lows. In many states gas prices have jumped as much as 50 cents or more per gallon over the past week, a nightmare headline for any Republican running in a purple district this fall.
"Rest assured to the American people, the recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary and this operation will result in lower gas prices in the long-term,” Leavitt said.
Even as Leavitt spoke, the president was engaged in a war of words on Truth Social, demanding that Iran end its efforts to mine the strait. There’s no sign that an alleviation of shipping woes or his promised gas price bonanza are on the horizon at all.
Trump’s war with Iran may have caused the president to enter his Biden era: Facing a challenging election cycle, the president is asking Americans not to believe their lying eyes and ears on everything from the economy to their country’s military prowess. It’s a dangerous gamble, but unlike Biden, the president’s own personal political fate is insulated from the consequences that could arrive in November.
