DC insider breaks down Trump's 'unpardonable' Iran blunder

President Donald Trump’s actions in engaging America into a war with Iran are “unpardonable,” according to a Republican strategist who worked for President George W. Bush during his similarly-controversial war against Iraq.

Steve Schmidt, co-founder of The Lincoln Project and the Save America Movement, cautioned that a “tidal wave” of epic proportions is coming for the president’s party on The Daily Beast Podcast.

“We’re not winning this war,” consultant Steve Schmidt told The Daily Beast Podcast’s Joanna Coles. “And that is unpardonable in the United States.”

Noting that Trump has been repeatedly told the Iranian regime shows no signs of being toppled despite the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28th, Schmidt expressed disgust at Trump for publicly declaring victory regardless. At the time of this publication, Trump’s war has led to at least 13 American servicemembers dying and another 140 being injured.

“Before the war started, the midterms were already a political disaster of immense dimensions, immense dimensions for MAGA, for Trump,” Schmidt told Coles. “They’re going to lose the House majority. They’re likely to lose the Senate majority. They’re going to lose governors’ races. They’re going to lose up and down the ballot all over the country.”

Even before the Iran war, Democrats were already gaining momentum by flipping 28 traditionally safe Republican state legislative seats since November 2024, while Republicans have flipped zero. The Iran war is only heightening that trend.

“There are a lot of [Democratic] candidates and a lot of places who are going to win, and that’s before the war,” Schmidt said. “You can tell through the collapse of his polling numbers and their further deterioration and the split within the MAGA party on this issue that this is terrible for Trump.”

Despite originally being a staunch Republican, Schmidt is now one of Trump’s fiercest conservative detractors. Earlier in March he called out Trump for demanding a Nobel Peace Prize before waging unprovoked wars against Venezuela and Iran.

“He wanted the Peace Prize, and when he couldn’t get it, Trump lost his mind,” Schmidt wrote for his Substack on Friday. He then quoted a February letter Trump wrote to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre saying he would wage wars because of his disappointment at not getting the prize.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump told Støre.

On another occasion in March, Schmidt characterized the Iran war as being waged with “no debate, no plan, and no thought given by Donald, his stooges and politicized generals about the second-and third-order effects of their decisions. This is escalating.”

In a separate Substack editorial, Schmidt described how Trump has eroded faith in public institutions.

“Trust is a rare commodity in our wretched times,” Schmidt argued. “These are the days of corruption, self-dealing, incompetence and faithlessness to the Constitution.”