When Donald Trump spoke to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on Thursday, he was eager to talk about how pleased he was with himself and his decision to start a war in Iran. “I hope you are impressed,” the Republican president said. “How do you like the performance? I mean, Venezuela is obvious. This might be even better. How do you like the performance?”
When Karl explained that the public had real concerns about what happens next, Trump replied, “Forget about ‘next.’”
That three-word reply offered a valuable insight into his perspective: Trump apparently doesn’t want to be bothered about consequences. To the contrary, there’s reason to believe he and his team want to have fun with the war.
On Wednesday, the White House released a brief video via social media that combined real footage of combat in Iran and computer-generated sequences from a popular combat video game. A day later, Team Trump followed that up with another online video that spliced together snippets from popular action movies (Tom Cruise features prominently) with war footage, alongside text that read, “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY.”
It was against this backdrop that Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa spoke to the president and asked a good question. From the report:
Iran retaliated with missile and drone bombardments against U.S. bases and allied territory, targeting military facilities across the Gulf, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. One Iranian drone killed six American service members at a U.S. command center in Kuwait. Asked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home, Trump acknowledges the possibility.
‘I guess,’ he says. ‘But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.’
At a superficial level, I suppose there’s some truth to the claim that wars are deadly, but Trump’s blasé attitude and nonchalant tone might be easier to accept if he had launched a just and unavoidable war for which he’d prepared the American public with a clear and persuasive rationale.
Instead, the Republican launched an unnecessary war of choice, which has already led to American fatalities and, by the White House’s own estimation, will very likely lead to more.
I’m glad the president is prepared for the possibility of Iranian reprisals against Americans, but it would be far more reassuring if he could muster a response more compelling than “I guess.”
