Trump doesn't understand 21st-century warfare — and it cost America dearly

U.S. President Donald Trump with members of military at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, U.S., March 7, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are claiming that the U.S. military is being revitalized on their watch, rejecting "woke" policies and restoring a "warrior ethos." But Never Trump conservative Jonathan V. Last vehemently disagrees. Last, in The Bulwark, argues that Trump has "failed" the U.S. military with Iran and made the United States less influential in the world.

"Today, we're going to talk about…. how Donald Trump failed to prepare the U.S. military, leading to our defeat in Iran and the end of the American-led global order," Last explains in the conservative Bulwark. "In addition to Trump's other failures, he has been buying up cavalry horses at a time when our adversaries are building tanks. This stupidity failed the American military, diminished American power, and made our interests across the globe less safe. This is going to be a journey that is nominally about drones, but is really about Trump and the end of the American order."

Last continues, "We start by understanding that the drone is both the present and the future of warfare. This is not new. America was the first military to widely integrate drones, and we did it 30 years ago with the predator and then the reaper…. We gradually turned surveillance drones into weapons platforms, but the emphasis in America was still on big. Our drones were cheap by the standards of fighter jets, but they still cost real money."

Trump launched the United States' war against Iran three months ago in late February, and Last argues that he failed to understand the Iranian regime militarily.

"In pre-drone times," the Never Trump conservative writes, "Iran would have needed to rely on mines, fast-boats, and anti-ship missiles. Mines are hit-and-miss and slow to deploy — plus, they're hard to un-deploy, which is inconvenient for Iran because while they can close the Strait (of Hormuz) in the short term, in the long term, they need it open. Boats and missiles are relatively expensive and can be neutralized by conventional means. The Iranians needed another option — which is why they poured resources into their drone industry beginning in 2010. It was the drone that allowed Iran to close the Strait (of Hormuz) and win the war."

Trump, according to Last, also fails to understand how military technology has evolved in the 21st Century.

"If Ukraine can get its average cost to destroy a $20,000 Russian drone down to, say, $5000 — then they are winning the war," Last writes. "And that's why drones are a revolution. At its most basic, war is a competition to kill people in the most economically efficient way possible, so that your resources outlast the other side's resources. Modern low-cost drones undercut the entire superpower economic model of warfare that America relied on for half a century."

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