The New Republic's Greg Sargent opened his morning podcast, noting just how absent-minded or downright clueless President Donald Trump appears on Iran.
Trump answered questions on Air Force One about the new findings that the U.S. was behind the bombing of a girls' school in Iran. But when asked about it, Trump said he didn't know anything about it and that it was probably Iran that bombed their own people with Tomahawk missiles.
"Trump’s positions on the war are falling apart," explained Sargent. The school bombing, in its own way, "blew up in Trump’s face rather spectacularly."
Meanwhile, unlike the early 2000s, the American people are not embracing "freedom taxes" and Trump's effort to reignite another Middle Eastern war. Sargent thinks "it says something fundamental about the American public during the Trump era."
Columnist Paul Waldman spoke with Sargent about his new column about why Trump's war is so unpopular, even among his own voters.
In a New York Times examination, they found that public support for going to war is the lowest it has ever been, dating back to before World War II. However, Waldman said that the good old days of "rally around the flag" are gone. That isn't happening this time, in large part, he said, because Trump is starting from such a low place.
"The second, and I think most important thing, is that in every one of those cases, there was a real argument being made that America was under threat. And in some cases it may have been exaggerated, but at least it was plausible," he added.
In this case, there is no imminent threat, and some of that is of Trump's own making, as he spent last summer bragging he "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. If it is gone, why is this new war necessary?
The two then turned to Trump's comments aboard Air Force One. Trump was asked about the girls' school and answered, "I just don’t know enough about it. I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks — they buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report."
Sargent called this "utterly humiliating." Not only was it bad for the story about the girls' school, but he also revealed he didn't know much about the situation on the ground.
It "accidentally undermines his case for claiming that Iran did the bombing. It just blew up in his face so spectacularly," said Sargent.
Waldman explained that this largely comes from Trump's lack of interest in the details. However, he said, if Trump wants to wage a propaganda war and ensure its success, he has to promote those messages consistently. He spent one day encouraging the Iranian people to rise up, only to then claim on Truth Social that he would rain down fire upon them.
The administration has seemed confused about the reasons for the war. First, it was about the protesters, then about nuclear weapons, then freedom and the reasons keep changing. It's difficult to build a message around that.
There's another problem as well, that there aren't any other military sites to bomb, Waldman said.
"I mean, obviously, there are still missiles and drones, and a lot of them are hidden, and the U.S. is trying to find them and take them out. But at the same time, Israel is bombing oil depots and we’re attacking infrastructure in Iran. And presumably if the country is going to want to rebuild, those are things that they’re going to need, and the misery of the Iranian people in the short term is only going to be exacerbated," he explained.
He recommended that Trump appear less on the side of the bombs and more on the side of the Iranian people to show the world that the war wasn't a waste of time and money.
"But right now we’re not doing either of those things, because this administration is consumed by bloodlust, and people like [Pete] Hegseth and the rest of them can’t even seem to get their story straight," Waldman said.
