Ex-GOP lawmaker goes off as US finds itself in 'worst-case scenario' due to Trump blunders

A former lawmaker and critic of President Donald Trump slammed the president's Iran war decisions following his announcement on Monday to stop a planned military attack amid "serious negotiations" and telling the military to be ready "on a moment's notice."

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told CNN that Trump's Truth Social post announcement stating alleged negotiations underway and that an attack had been stopped by allies was putting the United States in a bad position.

"This is so damaging," Kinzinger said. "You know, regardless of let's just be, you know, agnostic on whether he should attack again or not for the moment when you make threats and then you're eager to back down from those threats, which he has been every single time. I mean, he's gone from 'we will destroy an entire civilization' to 'we have a deal,' which we never actually had, by the way, claiming the strait's open, claiming it's closed, claiming he was going to pull the trigger on May 19th."

But Trump's decision-making was troubling, and he has not offered a clear strategy for the war, Kinzinger argued.

"One of the greatest things the United States had is our ability to say, we will do something," Kinzinger explained. "The enemy knows that, and then hopefully we won't have to do that. This has just been like threat, back off, threat, back off. And I haven't seen the Iranians move in any way here. And we find ourselves in the worst-case scenario, which is a closed strait, this nebulous future. And gas is now having to price in, and futures are pricing in the uncertainty."

Kinzinger argued that the United States was lacking a strategy to exit the ongoing military conflict.

"That's what'scrazy, is we did go in withoverwhelming military power. Andnow in the White House, they aretrying to figure out what Iranneeds to be satiated to bepleased," Kinzinger said. "And I mean, this is whythey should have thought thisthrough."

"If you'regoing to do something likeattack Iran, you have to knowwhat the contingencies are," Kinzinger added. "Andhonestly, those contingencies,you have to be willing to dothem. Otherwise, you probablyshould not have gone to thisfight in the first place. And so,what is the future here looklike? You know, I don't know.Are they going to find somethingthat Iran wants? Maybe are theygoing to actually denuclearizethem or whatever? I don't know. Is there going to be an Iranian,you know, toll on every shipthat passes?"

Kinzinger warned about what could be next for future generations.

"But I know thismuch. I know that my kid, who's4 1/2 years old, isgoing to probably be in acountry that has a worsesituation based on what's goingon because of this war, than hadwe done nothing," Kinzinger said. "I think Donald Trump needs to figure out if weresume hostilities with Iran,you need to have a plan in placeto reopen that strait and stickto the use of the military untilit's done, or quit thesethreats, because this is justmaking it worse."