Donald Trump has turned to legendary Republican pistoleros like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood for leadership inspiration amid his war in the Middle East.
The 79-year-old president appeared to channel his inner desperado while speaking with Fox News on Monday about his ongoing war against Iran. “It’s like a gun slinger, where he draws his gun first,” Trump said. “If we waited three days, I believe we would have been attacked.”
He also praised the timing of his assault for having taken the Iranian regime by surprise. “Breakfast attacks are unusual, and they were misled because they thought we weren’t going at that time and all that,” he said.
Trump’s bizarre comments about cowboys, and breakfast, featured in extracts from his chat with Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst quoted in the network’s write-up. They were omitted from its broadcast version.
The president’s Western stylings on that call arguably echo Kristi Noem’s ad campaign promoting the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which featured the secretary, nicknamed ICE Barbie for her habit of cosplaying as a federal agent, riding horseback through majestic South Dakota scenery.
Trump fired Noem last week amid backlash to the advertisement’s $220 million price tag, as well as a slew of other controversies, including a rumored extramarital affair with one of her advisers. Her pending replacement, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, is a known enthusiast for cowboy attire.
The president’s remarks about a pre-emptive strike against Iran represent only the latest of four different justifications his administration has offered for the conflict. Officials have variously said the war is designed to free the Iranian people, to put an end to the regime’s nuclear program, to affect a change in leadership, and to defend against an imminent attack on U.S. bases in the region.
Critics have been quick to point out a perceived circularity in the White House’s most recent argument, which appears to suggest that the U.S. is attacking Iran to protect U.S. interests from retaliation in the event Iran comes under attack.
Trump’s new war has cost billions of dollars, caused billions more in damage to regional oil infrastructure, and claimed hundreds of lives, among them seven U.S. servicemembers and dozens of Iranian school children, in just the 11 days since he started it.
Hostilities have spread to Cyprus and Turkey, as well as Sri Lanka in South Asia. Oil prices spiked dramatically on Monday amid blockages in the Persian Gulf, which transports roughly one fifth of the world’s supply, and markets continue to reel as investors scramble to insulate themselves from disruptions to global trade.
Trump has previously said he will not call off his attacks for anything short of “unconditional surrender” by the Iranian regime. He told Fox News Monday that “I’m hearing they want to talk badly.”
“It’s possible, depends on what terms, possible, only possible…” he went on. “You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
