Multiple British news outlets reported late last week that the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier was being prepared for possible deployment to the Middle East to assist the United States and Israel in their joint war with Iran. On Saturday, however, Donald Trump, who has a habit of insulting and alienating our closest allies, used his social media platform to deliver a message to leaders in the U.K.: Don’t bother.
“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” the American president wrote. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”
There was quite a bit wrong with the undiplomatic missive, but the relevance of those last four words that lingered: Just seven days into the military offensive, Trump made it sound as if the war in Iran was already over, and as far as he was concerned, victory was already at hand.
It wasn’t an isolated comment. On Monday, the Republican told CBS News, “I think the war is very complete, pretty much.” A few hours later, at a press conference, he added that he expects the offensive in Iran to end “very soon.”
The president, however, has apparently failed to convince his own administration, including the Defense Department, which declared online on Monday afternoon, “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.” In recent days, other U.S. officials have suggested that the bombings could last for several more weeks — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that “this is just the beginning” of the conflict — suggesting they don’t see a war that’s “very complete, pretty much.”
The president was asked to reconcile the contradiction. “You said the war is ‘very complete,’ but your defense secretary says this is ‘just the beginning,’” a reporter noted at Monday’s press conference. “So which is it?”
“You could say both,” Trump replied.
The press conference followed remarks the president delivered to the House Republican conference, in which he said, “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.”
So to recap, we’ve already won the war, which we’ll win soon, which we haven’t won enough, which is both over and just getting started.
That ought to clear things up.
What’s more, this comes against a backdrop in which Trump has already publicly contradicted Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Hegseth, just in the first week of the violent conflict.
The incoherence is certainly exasperating, but the larger problem is far more serious: The contradictions fuel impressions that these guys just don’t know what they’re doing.
If the White House wants to better understand why so many Americans are opposed to the war in Iran, it can start by coming to terms with the fact that the administration’s overlapping contradictions reflect incompetence that undermines public confidence in the mission.
