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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

Trump’s ‘quasi-dove’ era is over. Iran strikes expose his hawkish turn

Man seated looks ahead
Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC on 3 March 2026. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Pool/Samuel Corum - Pool/CNP/Shutterstock

It was a claim uttered repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail: “I’m the only president in 72 years that didn’t start a war,” Donald Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.

Fact checkers cried foul and pointed out that Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, did not start any wars either. But Trump won the election anyway.

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