President Donald Trump is facing criticism and mockery after admitting he was "shocked" that Iran fought back against Operation Epic Fury.
"Trump just admitted publicly that his administration underestimated the Iranian response to his attack," The Washington Post's Josh Rogin reported.
During a meeting of the board governing the Kennedy Center, Trump said, "look what happened. In the last two weeks, they weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked."
Focusing on Trump's "shocked" remark, some critics blasted the president, once again, for what many have previously said is a Commander-in-Chief who was unprepared to go to war against Iran.
The New Yorker's Susan Glasser called Trump's comments a "Remarkable admission."
Former Republican U.S. Rep. Justin Amash declared, "We are governed by complete morons."
Podcaster Clint Russell noted, "Just FYI, this is the EXACT reason our generals have consistently advised against a war with Iran. Even Charlie Kirk had laid this all out on his show a couple years ago. Iran was no threat to America but they were fully capable of destroying the global economy by striking oil facilities and transit throughout the region."
Robert Manning, a Distinguished Fellow in Global Foresight at the nonpartisan Stimson Center, wrote: "If so, he was the only one surprised. Strategic planners have war games this for 40 years. Hard to believe JCS [Joint Chiefs of Staff] didn’t advise Trump this was likely."
"I'm pretty confident every war plan US has ever done in last 30 years gaming out this conflict was based on expectation that Iran could in fact [and] would in fact do this," noted The Nation's Jeet Heer.
"Every institution built to prevent exactly this outcome existed, was bypassed, and we are now watching the president express shock at conclusions that were already written in the classified assessments he didn't read," observed Christine Villaverde, the chairwoman of Anchoring Democracy.
Trump: They weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked pic.twitter.com/4bAHIat1kI
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 16, 2026
READ MORE: Kristi Noem at Center of Push for DOJ Perjury Probe: Report
Image via Reuters