In bombing Iran, Peace President Trump isn’t putting America first | Opinion
Imagine, if you will, a Donald Trump elected in 2024 who, within 14 months of taking office, had raised taxes by the trillions, reopened the border to undocumented migrants by the millions and proposed a national expansion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs starting in kindergarten. I presume there might be howls of outrage, but maybe not.
The real Trump is still raining bombs, missiles and suicide drones on the second country where he has overthrown the illegitimate dictator. Never mind the “peace president.” Never mind talk of regime change being an “absolute failure.” Never mind the promises to keep America out of “forever wars” and focus on “America first.”
Talking to Trump supporters on Saturday and Sunday I was still a bit surprised to see little more than a shrug of the shoulders and a litany of excuses: “Trump is protecting Israel.” “Trump has the Arab nations on our side — Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman.” “We can’t let Iran get a nuclear weapon.” “The mullahs are killing innocent democracy protestors in the street.” It is almost like I was texting and emailing and having drinks with those gathered at an old-school neocon convention.
George W. Bush, whose wars Trump once railed against, would be proud.
After Ayatollah Khamenei
I am not sorry to see Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old who had run Iran for the last three decades, 6 feet under. That’s not least because Iranians at home and abroad are cheering the demise of his bloody rule. He killed Iranians by the tens of thousands, funded terrorists around the globe and backed the most evil players in wars in Lebanon, Yemen, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria with bullion, bullets and broadsides.
The danger is now twofold. When George. H. W. Bush defeated Saddam Hussein in Kuwait in 1991, the Iraqi protesters who rose up to try to overthrow the regime were slaughtered when the United States didn’t put boots on the ground to help them. That could easily happen in Iran.
And the fact is now that American lives are at risk on an hourly basis — three are already dead. If there is an endgame in this, it hasn’t been shared with the public or with Congress.
Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, normally a reliably Trumpy voice, wrote on X that “Our Constitution vests the decision to take our nation to war in Congress. When American forces are engaged or may be further committed, the administration should provide full, timely briefings to Congress so that we can understand the objectives, risks and costs for continued or expanded military action.”
I think that’s right. While I haven’t found comments beyond prayers for the troops from the rest of the Kansas and Missouri senators, Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids, who has higher ambitions, sounds just like the Donald Trump of the 2016, 2020 and 2024 campaigns. “Costly, endless wars without congressional authorization are not the answer,” she said in a press release. “We cannot repeat the mistakes of our past, and I am extremely concerned about what this attack could drag us into.”
The same could be said of Venezuela, where Trump also has the United States deeply involved.
George W. Bush’s nation-building
At the peak of George W. Bush’s democracy-promoting and nation-building, the United States was responsible for the future of two fractious and diverse nations that didn’t control all their own territory: Iraq and Afghanistan. Bolting those countries back together spread violence beyond their borders and cost the U.S. Treasury more than a trillion dollars.
Today, Peace President Donald Trump has us in the same position in two other nations, Iran and Venezuela. The big difference is that large formations of U.S. combat troops are not in country. But I bet that in both cases we do have boots on the ground — special forces, deniable CIA agents and armed contractors — just like we did in the early days of Iraq and Afghanistan.
We’re one slippery step away from going back into the nation-building business. If Trump takes that step, we’ll all come to regret it.
Maybe it is time to be concerned about all Trump’s big promises. If he abandons one of his core beliefs, he could abandon any of them. Tax increases, unrestrained immigration and even a resurgent DEI could be next.
David Mastio is a columnist for The Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 12:07 PM.
