{"id":496762,"date":"2026-03-01T03:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496762\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T03:18:11","slug":"trumps-iran-attack-tests-his-past-criticism-of-drawn-out-foreign-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/496762\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Iran attack tests his past criticism of drawn-out foreign wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a>, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to the top of the Republican Party, risks becoming ensnared by that very type of conflict. <\/p>\n

The U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday cemented Trump\u2019s decade-long transformation from a candidate who in 2016 called the Iraq War<\/a> a \u201cbig, fat mistake\u201d to a president warning Americans to prepare for potential casualties overseas and encouraging Iranians to \u201cseize control of your destiny.\u201d The strikes were also at odds with Trump\u2019s warnings during the 2024 campaign that his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris<\/a>, was surrounded by \u201cwar hawks\u201d eager to send troops overseas. <\/p>\n

Trump justified the action as necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons or developing missiles capable of reaching the US, less than a year after he said airstrikes \u201cobliterated\u201d their capability. US intelligence has also said Iran\u2019s weapons capability was substantially degraded. <\/p>\n

For Trump, memories of the false pretenses underlying the Iraq War could lead to pressure to prove his assertion that Iran\u2019s weapons production posed an imminent threat to Americans. And for Republicans already facing a challenging election year weighed down by economic anxiety, the shift could force a reassessment of how the attacks fit into the \u201cAmerica First,\u201d isolationist-leaning movement the party has embraced during the Trump era.<\/p>\n

While Trump might benefit from an early rally-around-the-flag effect, that could be hard to sustain for weeks and months, if not longer, a far different scenario from the swift effort to remove Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power earlier this year in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Success on day one is one thing. The days after are inherently unpredictable. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is whether Iran\u2019s goal is simply to outlast America and whether Trump has strategic attention deficit disorder, which will allow the Iranians to rise from the ashes and claim victory,\u201d said Michael Rubin, a historian at the American Enterprise Institute who worked as a staff adviser on Iran and Iraq at the Pentagon from 2002 to 2004. <\/p>\n

Many Republicans get behind Trump<\/p>\n

Many Republicans were quick to line up behind the president, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> and state attorney general Ken Paxton<\/a>, who are fighting a competitive Senate primary election on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully lives will not be lost needlessly, but this always entails risk,\u201d Cornyn said Saturday at a campaign stop near Houston. \u201cBut we know that Iran will not stop unless the United States and our allies stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, like Sen. Todd Young<\/a> of Indiana, praised the military and were critical of Iran while noting that Americans will have questions that \u201cmust be answered.\u201d <\/p>\n

And there was outright opposition from some who have long criticized overseas entanglements, including Sen. Rand Paul<\/a>, the Republican of Kentucky, who lamented the start of \u201canother preemptive war.\u201d Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>, the Georgia Republican who was once a close Trump ally, rejected the president\u2019s warning of Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a lie and it\u2019s always America Last,\u201d she wrote online. \u201cBut it feels like the worst betrayal this time because it comes from the very man and the admin who we all believed was different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little advance preparation for Americans<\/p>\n

The administration did little in advance to prepare Americans for such a dramatic action. <\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance<\/a> told The Washington Post this week there was \u201cno chance\u201d that the U.S. would become involved in a drawn-out war as it did in Iraq. During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump dedicated just a few lines to Iran, arguing the country and its proxies have \u201cspread nothing but terrorism, death and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

That stands in stark contrast to the lengthy runup to the Iraq War. <\/p>\n

President George W. Bush<\/a>, for example, named Iraq as a member of the so-called axis of evil in January 2002. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a now-infamous speech to the United Nations in February 2003, making the case for war based on the inaccurate assertion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The invasion, which ultimately dominated Bush\u2019s second term, didn\u2019t begin until March 2003. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to be honest that there is a sense that this was not sold to the American public sufficiently,\u201d Andrew Kolvet said Saturday on \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show,\u201d an online program founded by the late conservative activist who was close to Trump. \u201cPerhaps there will be an opportunity on the backend of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolvet was willing, however, to give Trump leeway, noting these are the types of challenging decisions presidents are entrusted with.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has earned a big, long leash,\u201d he said. \u201cNot an unlimited one. But a very long one to make tough decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polling suggests that many Americans share Trump\u2019s concerns about Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities, even if they\u2019re less confident in the president\u2019s response. About half of U.S. adults were \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d concerned that Iran\u2019s nuclear program poses a direct threat to the U.S., according to a poll this month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Most Americans, 61%, said Iran is an \u201cenemy\u201d of the U.S., which is up slightly from a Pearson Institute\/AP-NORC poll<\/a> conducted in September 2023. But their confidence in the president\u2019s judgment when it comes to relationships with adversaries and the use of military force abroad is low, the new poll shows, with only about 3 in 10 Americans saying they have \u201ca great deal\u201d or \u201cquite a bit\u201d of trust in Trump.<\/p>\n

Democrats sense an opening<\/p>\n

Democrats sense a political opening on the issue. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills and Graham Platner are competing for the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in the fall. They both issued statements on Saturday pressing Collins, the only Republican on the ballot this year in a state won by Harris, to step up her oversight of the administration.<\/p>\n

Collins was one of three Senate Republicans who backed an unsuccessful push<\/a> last month for a war powers resolution that would have limited Trump\u2019s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela. Democrats said Saturday<\/a> they would quickly seek a vote on a similar proposal for Iran. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019ve started a war where we begin to lose American lives, that starts changing the political calculus,\u201d said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.<\/p>\n

But he noted that Democrats have vulnerabilities of their own, particularly if there\u2019s a domestic terror attack while the Department of Homeland Security is closed as they demand changes to how immigration operations are conducted.<\/p>\n

For now, Trump isn\u2019t offering much of a detailed strategy on what comes next. In a social media post Saturday evening, he said bombings could continue \u201cas long as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump, whose fierce denunciation of military adventurism abroad fueled his unlikely rise to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7589,164749,23,214418,227088,12,1070,793,12805,801,1570,93692,6009,21482,5744,6590,13409,227089,1576,3,18231,111,53216,212547,12800,146917,8638,795,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,964,800,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-496762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2026-elections","10":"tag-america","11":"tag-andrew-kolvet","12":"tag-colin-powell","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-elections","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-george-w-bush","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-iran-government","19":"tag-janet-mills","20":"tag-jd-vance","21":"tag-john-cornyn","22":"tag-kamala-harris","23":"tag-ken-paxton","24":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","25":"tag-michael-g-rubin","26":"tag-military-and-defense","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-nicolas-maduro","29":"tag-politics","30":"tag-rand-paul","31":"tag-ron-bonjean","32":"tag-susan-collins","33":"tag-todd-young","34":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","35":"tag-u-s-news","36":"tag-u-s-republican-party","37":"tag-united-states","38":"tag-united-states-of-america","39":"tag-unitedstates","40":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","41":"tag-us","42":"tag-usa","43":"tag-war-and-unrest","44":"tag-washington-news","45":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}