A top CNN host shredded the Trump administration’s advice to U.S. citizens stranded by the president’s war as a glaring sign he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.
“For me, the most important signifier of where we are right now is the order given by the United States for all Americans to leave the Middle East, but do it on your own dime,” Christian Amanpour told Jon Stewart on Wednesday.
Speaking on the late-night comic’s podcast, she added that the White House urging citizens to evacuate on commercial flights “speaks volumes.” Much of the region’s airspace is closed.
“It speaks to a lack of planning,” she went on. “That was a panic message to me.”
Trump launched an ongoing bombardment of Iran over the weekend that has now plunged the Middle East into chaos.
Hostilities have since spread to Cyprus in Europe and Sri Lanka in South Asia. Shockwaves continue to ripple across the global economy.
The president has offered four different explanations for the conflict, the last of which appears to have stuck as the official White House line.
His administration says Israel was facing an imminent attack from Iran. Israel decided to attack first, and Trump joined to limit the severity of Iran’s response against U.S. targets in the region.
Critics note the administration’s argument appears to suggest the U.S. attacked Iran to defend military assets from retaliation in the event Iran came under attack.
Trump’s detractors have framed that circularity—along with his three other explanations, shifting timelines, unclear evacuation guidance, and reports that the Pentagon is struggling to keep up the pace—as evidence that the president thought through neither the motives nor consequences of his war before starting it.
Responding to a Daily Beast request for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “President Trump’s courageous decision to launch Operation Epic Fury is grounded in a truth that presidents for nearly 50 years have been talking about, but no president had the courage to confront: Iran poses a direct and imminent threat to the United States of America and our troops in the Middle East.”
