President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Iran stuck to its seven-day proposal for reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz, saying it won’t soften its conditions, while Trump sent mixed signals about his willingness to reach a deal. Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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WASHINGTON ― After having claimed dozens of times during the spring and summer that his war against Iran was effectively over and that he had won it, President Donald Trump is now admitting that neither assertion was true.
For the second time in as many days, Trump on Monday said his war that began seven months ago today is still ongoing. “We’re going to win that war very soon,” he told reporters during an Oval Office photo opportunity.
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The message was the same the day previous, in an interview with Fox News during his visit to a golf tournament outside Chicago. “I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to win the war very soon,” he said.
The statements come after the several dozens of times in recent months that Trump has claimed the war was essentially already over. They reflect a new effort by Trump and the GOP to convince angry midterm election voters that the war ― and the price hikes that have accompanied it ― will end soon.
“Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the ― in the first hour, it was over,” he bragged at a March 11 rally in Kentucky.
On numerous other occasions, Trump has said a peace deal was days or even hours away, or that he could secure such an agreement because Iran was “begging” for one.
“They’re willing to give us everything,” he said at a June 8 speech in South Carolina, in which he also claimed he would “declare total victory” in the next two weeks.
Trump’s White House did not respond to HuffPost queries asking why the president was now changing his analysis about the war and who had won it.
The Iran war was never supported by a majority of Americans and has only grown more unpopular as the months have dragged on. In recent weeks, Republicans running to win or keep seats in the House and Senate have started calling for an end to the war, as well.
“Donald Trump promised no more endless wars and lower prices. Instead, he dragged the country into another deadly and costly war with no way out, wrecking the economy and driving up prices even higher on everything from gas to groceries,” said Democratic National Committee spokesperson Jaelin O’Halloran.
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Trump’s new concession came as he tried to explain why gasoline and diesel prices were so high.
“We’re going to win that war very soon. That will be over and the gas prices will come tumbling down,” he said Monday, and a little later: “As soon as that war ends, inflation is going to be eradicated totally.”
Trump also continues to claim he had no choice but to attack Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. He neglects to mention, though, that every ounce of enriched uranium Iran possess today was refined after Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement that predecessor Barack Obama had negotiated in 2015 and which Iran had been honoring.
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