Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s unilateral war with Iran, some advisors — and the MAGA community in particular — has speculated how much wealth and lives Trump and his Secretary of Defense are willing to throw at his futile campaign.
Christopher Lee, veteran campaign operative and Foresight Strategic Advisors founder, said any proposal for a draft and ground invasion had best be off the table unless Trump wants to get his Republican Party curb stomped for the foreseeable future.
“The reason is simple: invading Iran with ground forces has the same practical military sense as would building a house on top of an active volcano,” Lee told the Mirror.
Lee’s comments come days after Trump threatened Iran yet again and warned Americans in the region to prepare as he said that “the biggest attack of them all is waiting in the wings” in a Truth Social post.
The Mirror reports speculation of a draft really took off earlier this year with the news of changes proposed by the Selective Service System, transforming the draft from a self-registration system to an automatic registration system. This could come into effect as early as December of this year.
For now, Lee pointed out that Trump’s Iran conflict has largely been fought in Gulf waters by air by either carrier-based aircraft or land-based heavy bombers, making the draft and a U.S. ground invasion unnecessary. But Trump is not making progress with “death from above” tactics — and he and his secretary of defense have rapidly depleted U.S. ammunition stockpiles. They’ve also ballooned U.S. debt with Trump’s unnecessary military invasion. Add to that the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz and subsequent price increases on fuel and fertilizer for Americans and farmers and Trump is feeling the heat to end the war before the November midterms.
Declaring defeat could be one option, but it will leave a stain of impotence on both the 80-year-old president and the Republican Party that enabled and allowed his war. The only other real option is escalation — but that would involve ground forces, and likely blood and U.S. casualties. The Iran War has already caused the death of U.S. servicemembers. More coffins piling up at military airports would look bad on a president who himself repeatedly avoided the military draft in the Vietnam War.
Worse, if Trump activated the draft, Lee said the president will find that he has deported a sizable portion of the draft’s most eligible young people.
“As is the case within any draft, it will be solely men ages 18-26. Again, the irony bites Trump hard here. The law passed in 2025 would require every male citizen to register. But, interestingly enough, the very people the Trump Administration wants to deport from this country could also be subject to any draft. This includes refugees, people seeking/granted asylum and green card holders,” said Lee.
