President Donald Trump has become trapped in a “forever war” with Iran not because of some strategic goal, but because of a personal vendetta against one specific person: former President Barack Obama.
This is according to Salon White House columnist Brian Karem, who on Friday wrote, “I think it’s obvious Donald Trump cannot and will not end the war he started with Iran. I don’t think it has a chance of ending until he’s out of office.” What’s more, Karem isn’t the only one who thinks so, writing, “At least three people I still talk with inside the Pentagon believe it. Former national security experts I’ve known for years from both political parties believe it. More importantly, it’s apparent Donald Trump is now admitting it.”
Karem cites a number of Trump’s recent statements that suggest he has little interest in winding down the war, instead raising the idea that the U.S. might expand its presence in Iran, potentially by putting boots on the ground. As Karem points out, Trump has also offered what are at best inconsistent justifications for the war.
“If this sounds like the Vietnam War,” notes Karem, “it’s only because it is eerily similar, but with a Trumpian twist.”
That twist involves Trump’s true motivation: his grudge toward Obama, which he expresses openly. As Karem writes, Trump has said the war is necessary because, “They would’ve never made a deal with Obama. That deal was the worst deal. What they did sign was a worthless piece of paper. What they signed, what they signed with Obama was a worthless piece of paper that was a road to a nuclear weapon.”
Karem notes that the truth is quite the opposite. Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action took 20 months to forge and successfully extracted nuclear concessions from Iran. But as Karem explains, “Trump tore up the JCPOA during his first administration, and Iran once again began enriching uranium. So while he complains that Iran won’t make a deal, perhaps it is because the agreement we had with Iran was torn up simply because Trump was still livid with Barack Obama after Obama made fun of him at the annual White House Correspondents' dinner in 2011.”
“I was there,” notes Karem. “I remember Trump’s face. He was mad then and he’s still mad now. He hates Obama for making fun of him then….Trump has sought revenge against Obama by trying to undo everything Obama did as president.”
Trump has argued that his goal is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but according to Karem, “The truth is we are now five months into a war that was supposed to last only four weeks but that we ‘won’ in two days over a weapons program that was ‘obliterated’ in June 2025. Meanwhile, the bombs keep falling, and Trump doesn’t care. But it goes far deeper than that.”
Karem goes on to provide a lengthy list of issues Trump has made clear he “doesn’t care” about, from whether the war ends, to lowering housing prices, to preventing ICE from killing people in the streets, and more, even noting that he was unworried about dying on his unprotected Air Force One gifted by Qatar, saying that if he died he would take reporters on the plane with him. The bottom line is that Trump “doesn’t care,” and as Karem notes, even those in the president’s orbit refer to him as a “sociopath.”
“If Trump is as dangerous as some claim,” writes Karem, “and I believe he may well be, and if he is determined to continue hammering Iran, then I wonder this: how dangerous is the president of the United States to himself and others? Does he represent an existential threat? His discussion of dying in an unprotected Air Force One and taking reporters with him, and his constant acknowledgement of threats against his life, are sobering and concerning. We can all see he is physically unwell. Many of us believe he is mentally fading.”
Karem concludes on a dire note, writing, “He won’t and can’t end the war in Iran because he doesn’t want to do so, and because the Islamic Republic obviously doesn’t trust him. ... At the end of the day, we’re staring at an unhinged president who began the war for intensely personal reasons. He is desperate to run Obama through the mud, and he doesn’t care who suffers as he does it. Let’s be honest: if Donald Trump can’t get his way, he wants to burn it all down.”