The war with Iran has caused unease at home, but Donald Trump appears uncharacteristically unfazed by the public mood.
Insiders say they are shocked at the president's apparently passive public rhetoric on the war and that the usually poll-obsessed Trump is willing to cool the public mood for the sake of the war. Zeteo's First Draft columnist, Asawin Suebsaeng, believes the war with Iran is the worst-run war in American history, and much of this is to do with Trump's attitude.
Suebsaeng wrote, "Donald Trump’s ongoing, deeply unpopular Iran war isn’t just illegal. It isn’t merely a moral and policy abomination. It’s not just a self-inflicted political catastrophe for the GOP, whose senators are still covering Trump’s a-- and just blocked a war powers resolution to stop his illegal military actions.
"When his administration isn’t lying through its teeth about the justifications for war, it’s busy being publicly confused about what its own mission is… or engaging in rapid-fire self-contradictions… or simply making it up as it goes along.
"Several close Trump allies tell me that even they are shocked by how vanishingly little this PR-and-polls-obsessed president bothered to sell the case for war to the public."
According to insiders, Trump is voicing his nervousness about the war privately, but publicly is boasting of great successes. Suebsaeng wrote, "When the mics are hot, Trump has glossed over the rising number of US military deaths, stressed that more are likely to die, and claimed he’s willing to stay in it for the long haul".
But away from the cameras, Trump is offering a far more negative view of the war with Iran. "Trump has voiced extreme unease about how the rising American body count 'looks,' and few officials close to him believe he has tolerance for a protracted quagmire".
Trump was reportedly already leaning toward a military strike, but he decided on the timing after Netanyahu's call, which came after months of close coordination – including 15 phone calls in two months – between the two leaders.
"The U.S. and Israel had considered striking a week earlier than Saturday, but postponed for intelligence and operational reasons, including bad weather," Axios reported. "An initial CIA check, conducted at Trump's direction, confirmed the information about Khamenei gathered by Israeli military intelligence."