Five ugly messaging mistakes the Trump Administration has made on the Iran War (and how to fix them)

Whatever you think of the war and its aims, the administration has not done itself any favors in the last month

(Side note: No, you did not miss any articles last week. I took the week off from the Unreported Truths fam for spring break with the actual fam. Won’t happen again… for a while. Anyway I’m back, with the world’s best baseball cap - picture coming soon.)

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Set aside, for now, the merits (or demerits) of the Iran war.

On Friday, the great Eugyppius — no friend of the left — made a strong case the war’s real goal was preemptive regime change. One can argue persuasively the United States shouldn’t be in that business, or equally persuasively getting rid of undemocratic, brutal anti-American governments is in our interest.

Either way, our effort at a quick and mostly bloodless regime change has failed. Iran has replaced the leaders killed in the first strikes. Protests, much less uprisings, are nonexistent. Meanwhile, Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz more quickly and completely than the Trump administration expected. The loss of oil is rocking the global economy.

So our choices are unpromising at this moment — escalation, with major risks, or a ceasefire leaving a vicious regime in power. Still, in days, or weeks, the situation may (in fact, inevitably will) be different. Thus judging our ultimate success is premature (though, like Eugyppius, I am not optimistic).¹

But judging the war’s messaging to this point is not.

Over the last month, the Trump administration has made any number of unforced errors. The mistakes that follow are unpardonable. The White House must fix them now if it hopes to convince Americans this conflict is worth fighting, much less escalating:

1: Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, cannot play any role in peace talks with Iran or serve as an envoy to any Gulf nation while he is trying to raise billions of dollars for his investment funds from those countries.

This is so obvious no one should even need to say it. Kushner can work for the American people, or himself. Not both. God or mammon.

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2: The president needs to stop sending profanity-laced threats on Truth Social (a platform he partially owns). They are beneath the dignity of his office and come off as weak, not strong. If Trump wants to be remembered as a modern Teddy Roosevelt, he’d be wise to remember Roosevelt’s most famous motto: Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Worst of all, they risk inflaming Iran’s government and its people and putting American air crews or troops at risk if they are captured. Downed fliers in particular frequently meet rough justice.

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(No more of this. PLEASE.)

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3: Instead, the President needs to hold regular press conferences where he will take questions to discuss the war, explain its rationales, and give Americans some idea how much longer he expects operations to take. Ideally he will hold them at least weekly, at a regular time, whether the war has gone well or badly.

4: The Secretary of War needs to stop asking Americans to pray for American troops “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Putting aside the fact these messages — at best — go against the spirit of the First Amendment (and are insulting to Muslim, Jewish, and atheist soldiers), the United States is fighting a Muslim nation. Echoes of the Crusades are… unhelpful… if we hope to convince its people we are on their side.

5: The messaging about the war’s aims needs to be more consistent. Does the United States intend to use force to open the Strait of Hormuz, or is doing so the responsibility of our allies? Are we committed to destroying Iran’s nuclear program completely and removing its highly enriched uranium, or would we be satisified with entombing it (as I suggested weeks ago)?

Note: this point is fifth, even though it is arguably more substantive than the first four, because a war’s aims can reasonably change following the facts on the ground. But the daily ping-ponging from Trump is not helpful. Like his profanity, it shows weakness, not strength. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been notably more measured and careful about outlining the war’s aims from very early on.

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I do not think any of these points are radical. I’m sorry to have to make them at all. But with the war approaching its six-week mark (the outer edge of the timeline the president initially set), this is where we stand.

With spring coming, let’s hope for better days ahead.

Glad to be back.

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1. Set aside, too, if Trump should have asked for an authorization for the use of force from Congress before launching this war. I think he should have, but Congress appears to be unwilling to have a serious debate on the war even now. If it will not exercise its Article I power, demanding that the executive force it to do so is pointless.