Screengrab from Trump press conference on Iran.
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
– Donald Trump, Truth Social, April 7, 2026
Donald Trump has started a war with no plan, no strategy, no end game, and it has become increasingly clear that he has no ability to end it. The United States and its allies are already major losers in this unnecessary and illegal war, and U.S. adversaries are the major winners. The U.S. relationship with key European allies will suffer greatly, and our Asian allies will encounter great costs to their economies. The global economy will suffer from increased costs, with Russia and Iran notable exceptions as they earn increased profits from sales of oil and natural gas.
For the past week, Trump has boasted about U.S. military power and his willingness to use it. He is practicing a form of military coercion and terrorism, and his boasts regarding the use of military power raise serious questions regarding the need for such power and why America has to be as powerful as it is. Trump campaigned on the promise to bring endless wars to an end, but instead we find a commander-in-chief who boasts of his willingness to use military power and to secure America’s armed dominance in the global community.
Trump and his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed to use force against Iran because it represented an “imminent threat.” In reality, the Israeli leader convinced Trump that military force could be used successfully not because of Iran’s strength, but because of Iran’s weakness. We are fighting Israel’s war, and no American president has ever aligned himself militarily with Israel in such fashion. When the George Bushes (both father and son) went to war in the Middle East, they invested in important diplomatic tools to keep Israel out of the battle. Only Donald Trump was so obtuse as to go to war along side of Israel, which will harm U.S. relations in the Middle East in the near term and even longer.
Similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s misbegotten use of force against Ukraine, Trump and Netanyahu’s use of force against Iran has been a great strategic blunder. Russia, the second-most-powerful military in the world, thought it would need several days to defeat its weak neighbor. The United States and Israel thought it would be only several weeks for success against Iran. Russia’s war against Ukraine has now surpassed its four-year war against Nazi Germany in World War II. The setbacks that Russia, the United States, and Israel have encountered emanate from this flawed concept of sudden victory against weaker regimes. They wanted regime change; instead, they encountered regime resilience and a willingness to deal with an existential threat. In each case, they have prompted unity and resistance.
U.S. media have not been able to report accurately about Donald Trump because it fails to recognize or acknowledge his neurological impairment. Over the past year and a half, we have witnessed a president becoming increasingly unhinged. His malignant narcissism has been on display with an arrogance and rage never before witnessed in U.S. presidential history. His lies are a major part of this picture, witness his claim that unnamed former U.S. presidents told him they wished they had pursued policies against Iran that Trump has adopted. All of our living presidents have denied any discussions with Trump, let alone support for the military coercion and terrorism that he has pursued.
The strategic nightmare is obvious in all corners of the globe. The Atlantic alliance has been weakened; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been divided between East and West European states; Ukraine and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific (particularly Japan and South Korea) are being denied U.S. military weaponry needed to pummel Iran; China has emerged as a more responsible global actor; and Russia is gaining much needed hard currency from sales of oil in order to fight its ugly war in Ukraine. China will be a particular winner in this confrontation as it has stockpiled oil in recent years, and made huge advances in green technology that will be needed the world over to compensate for the higher price for oil and natural gas.
Iran’s major weapon in this struggle is control over the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump claims will be opened “naturally,” just as the pandemic would be cured “naturally” in his first term. Trump’s major weapon has been military power, and now he is seeking $1.5 trillion for defense spending in the coming year. The United States already spends as much for defense as the rest of the world, and any increases will come at the expense of much-needed economic and social programs at home. Once again, U.S. national security will suffer as Trump seeks increased military spending at the expense of medical and scientific research, education, and welfare programs. It could take a generation to rebuild the domestic institutions and agencies that he has harmed.
Finally, the religious hypocrisy on display at the White House is particularly ominous. The fact that Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth constantly indicate that God is both on their side and bloodthirsty is particularly chilling. Last Christmas, Trump threatened to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” if Islamic militants did not stop killing “our CHERISHED Christians.” This month, we were told that “militarily,” this has been our best Easter in history. Trump’s addiction to military force, and his lack of remorse or empathy is clearly a threat to civilization, particularly our own. The fact that this man holds the nuclear codes is terrifying.
