Stephen Miller has attempted to frame Donald Trump as a master of the art of war, even though the 79-year-old president admits he didn’t even consider the possibility Iran might fight back against a U.S. attack.
“The United States has achieved its objectives even faster than anybody thought possible,” the White House deputy chief of staff told Fox News on Wednesday night. “President Trump was aware of, and has calculated through, every permutation and every degree of strategy.”
“This has been, by far, the most overwhelming victory, based on the objectives,” he went on. “So that’s where we are right now. Again, the president has very wisely, very intelligently, created maximum leverage for the United States.”
Trump does not, on any level, appear to have thought through the motives, goals, timeline, fallout, or longer-term consequences of going to war with Iran, which he did with the launch of U.S.-Israeli air strikes on Feb. 28.
Only on Monday, the president said there was simply no way the United States, or anyone else for that matter, could have foreseen the retaliatory attacks from Iran on targets across the region. “Nobody expected that. We were shocked!” he told reporters. “Nobody, nobody, no, no, no. The greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit.”
Trump’s own “experts,” namely his intelligence officials, have since made clear that they did warn him ahead of time that Iran would likely “hit” back at U.S. strikes. Retaliatory attacks were “certainly on the list of potential outcomes” laid out in pre-campaign briefings, one official told Reuters Wednesday.
With gas prices rising at home and crude oil prices climbing past $100 a barrel as Iran blocks the vital Strait of Hormuz, the White House has offered multiple justifications for the conflict to date.
They include that Trump’s attacks were designed to liberate the Iranian people, to put an end to the regime’s nuclear program, to effect a change of leadership, and even to offset an “imminent threat” of retaliation against U.S. forces.
Critics have been quick to identify an inherently bizarre and seemingly circular logic behind the idea of a preemptive attack against retaliatory strikes, while others—including counterterror chief Joe Kent, who resigned in protest at the war—say Trump was goaded into the war by Israel.
Trump has variously said the campaign may take several weeks or several months, that it is already over, and that it could last “forever.”
Users in the comments section of a clip of Miller speaking with Fox, shared on X Wednesday, swiftly identified these and other contradictions on the top Trump aide’s behalf.
“He has calculated through every strategy?” one person said. “He said he had no idea the gulf countries would get bombed by iran or that the strait of hormuz would be closed. He certainly didn’t plan with our allies ahead of time so now they want no part of it.”
“He’s a genius of course,” former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a military veteran, wrote. “Even MAGA diehards don’t believe that,” another person added. “Translation: He fell asleep during the briefing,” a fourth said.
“On the Strait of Hormuz we’ve gone from: 1. Don’t need help 2. We need help 3. Why aren’t folks helping? 4. Helps on the way 5. Not telling you who is helping 6. Helps not actually on the way but we don’t need it anyway 7. We may just abandon it and leave it to everyone else,” a fifth user wrote.
“Well-known for detailed planning and scenario-thinking, him,” a sixth person said of the president.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
