Trump war plan 'total incoherence': Economist defense editor

A map showing the Strait of Hormuz and a 3D-printed miniature model depicting U.S. President Donald Trump are seen in this illustration taken March 23, 2026.

Monday morning, the Department of State posted a video of Secretary Marco Rubio laying out what he asserts are the “clear objectives” of the war on Iran. According to Economist defense editor Shashank Joshi, however, the statement only makes the “total incoherence” of the war’s intentions more obvious.

The DOS post features a clip of Rubio speaking on Good Morning America, in which he claims the war is being waged over a “very clear set of objectives” that were explained by President Donald Trump at the beginning of the operation.

“Here they are — you should write them down,” says a hostile Rubio. “Number one: the destruction of their air force. Number two: the destruction of their navy. Number three: the severe diminishing of their missile launching capabilities. And number four: the destruction of their factories so they can’t make more drones.”

There’s just one problem with Rubio’s assertion: none of these objectives match those that Trump has suggested for weeks.

As Joshi pointed out, Rubio makes no reference to destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities, or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz “even though the president literally just publicly said he would go on an infrastructure-destroying spree if Iran did not re-open it.”

And as one commenter on Joshi’s post wondered, “What about regime change? What about unconditional surrender?” These two points have consistently been among Trump’s proposed intentions.

None of this messaging confusion is new. The inconsistencies in Trump’s war rationale have been widely discussed since the early days of the war, and they have not become any clearer as anger over its negative economic impacts has grown.

Last week, the administration did lay out five aims that align with Rubio’s four goals to some degree, but as the AP points out, this list of intentions has “expanded and shifted” repeatedly as the war has dragged on. With the mission unclear in the first place, Trump is now poised to “face political fallout at home and global repercussions about what was accomplished in his decision to launch a war of choice that upended the Middle East and roiled the global economy.”

While Rubio seems frustrated by what he calls “a lot of talk about ‘we don’t know what the clear objectives are’,” he himself doesn’t seem to be familiar with the most commonly cited justifications from the president.

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