In recent days, tensions over the U.S. war in Iran have steadily mounted.<\/p>\n
Polls have shown the campaign is widely unpopular<\/a>. An entire flank of Trump\u2019s MAGA base has criticized it<\/a> as a clear departure from the \u201cAmerica First\u201d mantra Trump has long espoused. Leaders within the Trump administration have pushed against claims it was about regime change<\/a>, framing it instead as a necessary response to imminent threats.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, has struck a decidedly defiant tone \u2014 offering few of the reassurances or rationalizations that past presidents have offered in the initial stages of war, and sounding more unbothered than embattled. <\/p>\n He has lamented American casualties but also seemed to shrug them off \u2014 along with additional deaths he expects to come and potential attacks on the U.S. homeland \u2014 as the simple cost of war, saying, \u201cSome people will die.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n He has ignored concerns the war will turn into another unending Middle East quagmire, while openly flirting with taking over Cuba<\/a> too. <\/p>\n Undermining his administration\u2019s own messaging that the war is not about regime change, Trump wrote in a social media<\/a> post Friday that there would be \u201cno deal\u201d with Iran without \u201cUNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER\u201d<\/a> and new Iranian leadership \u201cACCEPTABLE\u201d to him.<\/p>\n Sticking a thumb in the eye of his \u201cAmerica First\u201d defectors, he said the U.S. and its allies are going to \u201cwork tirelessly\u201d to make Iran \u201ceconomically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,\u201d adding, \u201cMAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)\u201d<\/p>\n In the last week, Trump has instigated or been forced to navigate a stunning cascade of political threats. In addition to attacking Iran, he fired his Homeland Security secretary<\/a> in charge of his signature immigration campaign, faced newly detailed allegations<\/a> \u2014 which he denied \u2014 that he sexually assaulted a child alongside Jeffrey Epstein, saw his attorney general subpoenaed<\/a> by fellow Republicans in Congress, and watched American jobs numbers drop as gas prices spiked<\/a>.<\/p>\n And yet, Trump has also managed to avoid complex questions about those issues \u2014 the most pressing before his administration \u2014 and despite Democrats and some of his own supporters lashing out over them. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of Presidents fall short of their promises but I\u2019ve never seen any President just doing the opposite of everything promised on purpose. Prices, Epstein, wars. Just absolutely racing to betray his voters,\u201d Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Israel\u2019s war, this is not the United States\u2019 war. This war is not being waged on behalf of American national security objectives, to make the United States safer or richer,\u201d said Tucker Carlson<\/a>, one of Trump\u2019s longtime allies.<\/p>\n Carlson said Trump committed U.S. forces to fighting in Iran for no other reason than because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201cdemanded it,\u201d even though it \u201ccertainly wasn\u2019t a good idea for the United States\u201d and the Trump administration had \u201cno real plan\u201d for replacing the Iranian leadership it has now toppled.<\/p>\n The White House defended Trump\u2019s actions across the board in statements to The Times on Friday. <\/p>\n On Iran, it said Trump \u201cis courageously protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime \u2014 and that is as America First as it gets.\u201d On departing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, it said Trump \u201chas assembled the most talented and competent cabinet in history,\u201d and \u201ccontinues to have faith in his Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n On the economy, they said the Trump administration \u201cis doing its part to unleash robust, private sector-led economic growth with tax cuts and deregulation,\u201d and that Trump \u201chas already initiated robust action\u201d to control oil prices even amid the Iran war. And on the Epstein files, they said the latest claims unveiled \u201care completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has also spoken out in defense of his handling of the various crises facing his administration \u2014 but not nearly with the sort of detail and solemnity that wartime presidents usually speak, experts said. <\/p>\n At his only public event on Friday \u2014 a nearly two-hour round-table with national leaders and sporting officials about college athletics \u2014 he ridiculed members of the media who asked about Iran and Noem.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat a stupid question that is to be asking at this time,\u201d he said, when asked about reports that Russia was helping Iran target and attack Americans<\/a> there. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about something else.\u201d<\/p>\n When pressed as to why he was spending so much time talking about college sports when so much else is going on in the country and the world, Trump briefly talked about Iran \u2014 saying \u201cpeople are very impressed by our military\u201d and that the U.S. is now \u201cmore respected than we\u2019ve ever been\u201d \u2014 before concluding the event.<\/p>\n Jennifer Mercieca, a political historian and communications professor at Texas A&M and author of \u201cDemagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,\u201d said she was surprised Trump didn\u2019t make a stronger case for going to war in Iran during his recent State of the Union speech, and that he hasn\u2019t been more aggressive about making the case for war since, including by using traditional language about bolstering American values around the world. <\/p>\n \u201cIn comparison to other presidents in a similar situation trying to lead a nation into war, that is surprising to me \u2014 and unusual,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Also unusual is the low public support<\/a> for the war, Mercieca said, given that, since World War II, there has generally been high public approval for U.S. war efforts at their start.<\/p>\n