When Donald Trump returned to office, he did so on a promise that felt straightforward and deeply personal to many Americans: no more “endless wars.” “America First” was not framed as a grand theory of global order. It was framed as common sense. Stop sending American troops into conflicts that drag on for years. Stop spending trillions overseas while towns at home struggle. Put the country’s own people—its workers, its families, its veterans—at the center of decision-making again.

That is why the idea of launching a large-scale military campaign against Iran lands so heavily. Especially if it carries even a hint of regime change. For many who supported Trump precisely because he criticized those kinds of interventions, this does not feel like a minor shift in tactics. It feels like crossing a line.

Trump built much of his political identity around rejecting the foreign policy consensus that led to Iraq and Afghanistan. He spoke about those wars not in abstract geopolitical terms, but in human ones—lives lost, soldiers cycling through multiple deployments, families changed forever. He talked about the trillions of dollars spent and asked what that money might have done if invested in American cities, roads, factories, and schools instead. That argument resonated in places where people felt........

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