Donald Trump played a game of hypotheticals and then thanked himself in the third person as part of an attempt to deflect blame for his strikes on Iran.
During a Truth Social posting spree, Trump, 79, first made a dubious claim about the nuclear deal agreed to under the Obama administration.
“If I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrendous Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), Iran would have had a Nuclear Weapon three years ago,” he argued. “That was the most dangerous transaction we have ever entered into, and had it been allowed to stand, the World would be an entirely different place right now. You can blame Barack Hussein Obama, and Sleepy Joe Biden.”
He ended the post with an all-caps pat on the back: “THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!”
But experts have disputed Trump’s theory, the New York Times reported, and likewise with a handful of his claims attempting to sell the war to the American people: that Iran had restarted its nuclear program, could build a bomb within a matter of days, and was building missiles that could reach the U.S.
Additionally, Obama warned that what is now happening could very well happen. The U.S., he said after Trump withdrew from the 2015 deal, could have to choose “between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”
Later Monday night, Trump imagined another scenario to try to boost his case for another Middle East war.
“The Radical Left Democrats, a Party that has completely lost its way, are complaining bitterly about the very necessary and important attack, by the United States and Israel, on Iran,” he wrote. “What most people understand is that they are only complaining BECAUSE I DID IT and, if I didn’t do it, they would be screaming — Why didn’t ‘TRUMP’ attack Iran, he should do it, IMMEDIATELY?"
“The fact is, whatever I do, they will be on the opposite side,” he added later.
Trump then shared a link to self-described Democrat Doug Schoen’s Fox News column supporting his Iran strikes, and to Larry Kudlow, his former National Economic Council director, giving the topic favorable coverage on Fox Business Network.
As of Monday, more than 550 people have been killed in Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent emergency service. In Lebanon, the health ministry put the death toll at 31, at least. A minimum of ten people were killed in Israel. Six U.S. service members have also died.
Also appearing on Truth Social was a White House press release urging Americans not to be “a panican” because “new victories pour in daily.” That release, however, was dated three weeks ago.
Trump also posted about a range of topics that had nothing to do with Iran. In addition to hyping Melania Trump’s speech at the United Nations Security Council and his administration’s effort to reduce prescription drug prices, the president announced he would be ending his boycott of the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner.
Trump said he came to his decision due to the country’s 250th anniversary and “the fact that these ‘Correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many...”
He didn’t say who.
The dinner is scheduled for Saturday, April 25, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. By then, the attack on Iran may be wrapped up; Trump said the war was projected to last “four to five weeks.” But, he added, the U.S. was capable of going “far longer than that.”
