After running on the promise of “no new wars” and spending the past few months bragging about all the conflicts he’d ostensibly stopped, over the weekend Donald Trump started a new war in the Middle East. So why exactly did the U.S. and Israel strike Iran? How long will the military campaign last? What’s even the goal here?

If you can’t answer any of these questions, you’re not alone. President Trump also seems confused about his justification for war and where things go from here. But he’s trying to work it out, seemingly by calling up lots of journalists he claims to hate.

Just two months ago, we saw the Trump administration immediately attempt to shape the narrative on the strike against Venezuela. Within hours of toppling Nicolás Maduro, Trump had delivered a formal press conference and called in to Fox & Friends for an on-air interview. The president’s brazenly imperialist remarks were shocking, especially to an American public accustomed to hearing some elaborate lies about WMDs prior to launching an attack. But Trump was quite clear about his aims; he declared that “we’re going to run the country,” U.S. companies would take over Venezuela’s oil business, and “nobody can stop us.”

That’s very different from how Trump interacted with the media in the first 48 hours of “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran. The president laid low at Mar-a-Lago during the initial strikes, releasing two prerecorded videos, posting updates on Truth Social, and putting out a sad photo of his makeshift in-home situation room:

President Donald J. Trump Monitors U.S. Military Operations in Iran: Operation Epic Fury, February 28, 2026 pic.twitter.com/OfnMkmBZ8G— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2026

President Donald J. Trump Monitors U.S. Military Operations in Iran: Operation Epic Fury, February 28, 2026 pic.twitter.com/OfnMkmBZ8G

Trump did not deliver any remarks at a live press conference over the weekend. Instead, as Politico reported on Monday morning, he called up nearly a dozen reporters:

What Trump has done is pick up the phone to........

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