After week of war and political upheaval, Trump remains defiant as ever

In recent days, tensions linked to the American war in Iran have continued to grow.

Polls have shown the campaign to be largely unpopular. An entire flank of Trump’s MAGA base criticized him as a clear departure from the “America First” mantra that Trump has long espoused. Trump administration leaders have pushed back against claims that this is regime change, instead portraying it as a necessary response to looming threats.

Trump, meanwhile, struck a decidedly defiant tone — offering few of the reassurances or rationalizations that previous presidents offered in the early stages of the war, and appearing more indifferent than beleaguered.

He lamented U.S. losses, but also seemed to dismiss them — as well as additional deaths he expected to come and potential attacks on U.S. homeland — as the simple cost of war, saying, “Some people are going to die.”

He ignored fears that the war would turn into another endless quagmire in the Middle East, while openly flirting with taking Cuba as well.

Undermining his administration’s message that war is not about regime change, Trump wrote in a social media post Friday that there would be “no deal” with Iran without “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” and without a new Iranian leadership that is “ACCEPTABLE” in his eyes.

Poking a thumb in the eye of his “America First” defectors, he said the United States and its allies would “work tirelessly” to make Iran “economically bigger, better and stronger than ever,” adding: “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!)”

Over the past week, Trump has instigated or been forced to confront a stunning cascade of political threats. In addition to attacking Iran, he fired his Homeland Security secretary in charge of his signature campaign on immigration, faced detailed new allegations — which he denied — that he sexually assaulted a child alongside Jeffrey Epstein, saw his attorney general subpoenaed by his Republican congressional colleagues, and watched American job numbers plummet as gasoline prices skyrocketed.

And yet Trump has also managed to avoid complex questions on these issues – the most pressing before his administration – and despite criticism from Democrats and some of his own supporters.

“I’ve seen many presidents fail to keep their promises, but I’ve never seen a president purposely do the opposite of everything promised. Prices, Epstein, wars. Just an all-out race to betray his constituents,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on X.

“This is Israel’s war, this is not America’s war. This war is not being fought in the name of American national security goals, to make the United States safer or richer,” said Tucker Carlson, one of Trump’s longtime allies.

Carlson said Trump committed U.S. forces to the fight in Iran for no other reason than because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “demanded it,” even though it “certainly wasn’t a good idea for the United States” and the Trump administration had “no real plan” to replace the Iranian leaders it has now toppled.

The White House defended Trump’s actions across the board in statements to The Times on Friday.

Regarding Iran, he said Trump is “courageously protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime — and that’s as America First as it gets.” Departing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Atty. According to General Pam Bondi, Trump “has assembled the most talented and capable Cabinet in history” and “continues to have confidence in his administration.”

On the economy, they said the Trump administration is “doing its part to unleash robust, private-sector-led economic growth with tax cuts and deregulation,” and that Trump “has already initiated aggressive measures” to control oil prices, even against the backdrop of the war in Iran. And regarding the Epstein files, they said the latest claims revealed “are completely baseless accusations, supported by no credible evidence.”

Trump also spoke out in defense of his handling of the various crises facing his administration — but not with the kind of detail and solemnity that wartime presidents usually speak, experts said.

At his only public event Friday — a nearly two-hour roundtable with national leaders and sports officials on college athletics — he ridiculed members of the media who asked him about Iran and Noem.

“What a stupid question to ask right now,” he said, when asked about reports that Russia is helping Iran target and attack Americans there. “We’re talking about something else.”

Asked why he spends so much time talking about college sports when there is so much else going on in the country and the world, Trump spoke briefly about Iran — saying that “people are very impressed with our military” and that the United States is now “more respected than we’ve ever been” — before wrapping up the event.

Jennifer Mercieca, a political historian and communications professor at Texas A&M and author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” said she was surprised that Trump did not make a stronger case for war in Iran during his recent State of the Union address, and that he has not been more aggressive in his defense of the war since, including using traditional language to reinforce American values ​​around the world.

“Compared to other presidents in a similar situation trying to lead a nation into war, this surprises me – and is unusual,” she said.

The low public support for the war is also unusual, Mercieca said, given that since World War II, public opinion has generally enjoyed strong approval of early U.S. war efforts.

Mercieca said she wondered if there was a correlation between Trump’s failure to provide a more forceful justification for the war and the weak public support for him — or perhaps between the weak public support and brash descriptions of the war as a ruthless campaign of destruction and revenge from others in the administration, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

She said Hegseth and others showed a “lack of decorum, honor or dignity.” [in] their way of behaving, especially when it comes to war and human lives.

Jack Rakove, professor emeritus of history and political science at Stanford University, said Trump’s posture fits his character from his early days in politics and before, because he “can never take responsibility for anything that appears to be a mistake” and is “obsessed with appearing tough and tough.”

Rakove said he does not believe, as some critics have suggested, that Trump launched the war in Iran specifically to distract from the Epstein files, which on Thursday included newly released descriptions by the FBI of several interviews in which a woman accused Trump and Epstein of sexual assault in the 1980s when she was a child. His accusations have not been verified.

But Rakove said he questioned the extent to which Trump was consciously pushing the chaos in order to ensure that no issue that would be damaging to him politically captured the public’s attention for too long.

Mercieca said Trump has always been “particularly good at controlling the public conversation,” but that power has been tested recently by the Epstein files — which have captured public attention despite his repeated statements that “we should move on, that we should stop talking about it, that he’s been exonerated.”

She said Trump’s instinct to move forward aggressively despite declining support for his economic policies, his immigration policies and his war in Iran may be linked to his desire to return people’s attention to his agenda, but is also consistent with his long-held desire to make history — including by taking big steps.

“I think he’s really trying to leave his mark on the White House, I think he’s trying to leave his mark on the nation, I think he’s trying to leave his mark on the world, and I think war is a way that leaders have traditionally done that throughout history,” she said.