President Donald Trump's brief response to the death of two service members in the Iran conflict has spurred outraged calls that he stand before Congress and explain himself.
Frustration mounted after news broke Saturday that two service members had been killed by direct Iranian fire and, as tensions mounted, the president was playing golf.
On Sunday, former White House correspondent John Harwood took to X on Sunday to share with his 500,000 followers an Atlantic editorial from staff writer Tom Nichols.
"Nichols asks Trump to do what a sane, decent president would do," wrote Harwood, "explain clearly and sensibly why he continues to send US troops into harm's way against Iran. [I]f only Trump were sane and decent."
Nichols' editorial goes further in condemning both the war and Trump's passing comment to a right-wing NewsNation reporter that the deaths were "very sad."
"Trump does not seem to comprehend that Iran has a higher pain tolerance than America," wrote Nichols. "Two more deaths are not, as Trump calls them, merely a “very sad thing.”
In his editorial, Nichols argued the 16 young Americans who lost their lives in the war deserved a better from Trump. Specifically, the writer called for a better explanation of why their lives were sacrificed.
"The Iranian mullahs are among the world’s worst tyrants, and Trump could have made the case for ridding the planet of their rule over a nation of more than 90 million people," Nichols wrote.
"But the president has not seen fit, in all this time, to give one address to the American people or to Congress about why he plunged the United States into war, the global economy into chaos, and young Americans into danger."
Nichols predicted Trump will escalate the war before he gives a thorough, detailed explanation to the American public, then made a final demand.
"Before one more member of the U.S. military is killed," wrote Nichols, "he should return to the airwaves—and stand before Congress—to explain what he’s doing in Iran and how many more lives he’s willing to risk."