Trump Claims He Would Have Won Vietnam War—Which He Dodged

Donald Trump also insisted he would have ended the Iraq War in five months.

President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday it would’ve taken him just five months to end a war he refused to fight in.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Trump bragged about how quickly he ended the war in Iran—shortly after threatening to resume attacks if things don’t go his way in the as-yet unstarted peace talks.

“And I just looked at a little chart, World War I, four years and three months. World War II, six years. Korean War, three years. Vietnam, 19 years. Iraq, eight years. I’m five months. OK, five months,” Trump said. “I would have won Vietnam very quickly. I would have, if I were president, I would have won Iraq in the same amount of time that we won because, essentially, we won here.”

The U.S. formal involvement in the Vietnam War wasn’t actually 19 years long—it was more like eight. But how can one expect Trump to know something like that, when he wasn’t actually there? The president, son of a rich real estate mogul, evaded the military draft five times.

And anyway, Trump clearly has loose definitions for what actually constitutes a war. The president seems to believe war starts and ends when he says so, and then starts again and ends again, and so on ad infinitum.

Hegseth Ends Flu Vaccine Mandate—Ensuring Everyone’s About to Get Sick

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a flu vaccine requirement is “absurd.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doesn’t think soldiers living and fighting together in close quarters or aboard warships need to take the flu vaccine.

“Under the disastrous Biden administration, this Pentagon waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy, and the freedom to express their religious convictions,” Hegseth said in a video statement posted on Tuesday morning. “Under President Trump … we’re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flue vaccine, and the mandate behind it.”

The War Department is once again restoring freedom to our Joint Force. We are discarding the mandatory flu vaccine requirement, effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/9K5W8g0NsD— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) April 21, 2026

The War Department is once again restoring freedom to our Joint Force. We are discarding the mandatory flu vaccine requirement, effective immediately. pic.twitter.com/9K5W8g0NsD

The announcement was widely criticized by Democrats for the timing, the level of priority attached to it, and the obvious disregard for the history of influenza in the U.S. military. During World War I, an estimated 45,000 U.S. soldiers died from influenza. Now, Hegseth is proudly eschewing a vaccine that is known to be an effective way to avoid getting the flu—something servicemembers, especially those stationed on warships in the Middle East—would likely appreciate.  

“Nothing says military readiness like sick soldiers,” Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro said. 

This story has been updated.

Trump to Recite Eyebrow-Raising Scripture at Bible Reading Event

President Trump is reading a very notable passage, as the separation of church and state crumbles further.

President Trump is not exactly known for his piousness, but one Bible verse seems to have struck his fancy—probably because it was used by evangelical Christians to sing his praises while they tried to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021.

In the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 consists of God responding to a prayer from Solomon, a king of ancient Israel. God promises Solomon he will bless his temple as long as he and his people are not idolaters. As is common in the Old Testament, God’s message rings with both love and fury. But verse 14, the most famous bit of the passage, is positive: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

As part of a weeklong “America Reads the Bible” event organized by the White House and the election-denying evangelical group Christians Engaged, a prerecorded video of Trump reading 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 will air at 6 p.m. E.T. Tuesday evening. Remember the separation of church and state? That was nice.

Trump reading the passage will thrill what’s left of the January 6-ers. During the Capitol riot, Couy Griffin—the founder of “Cowboys for Trump,” a fan club that rode on horseback to Trump’s political events—recited verse 14 over the crowd.

According to the Christian Post, Trump’s association with the passage goes back even further, to 2016. After his unlikely election win, evangelist Anne Graham Lotz—Billy Graham’s daughter—used the verse to claim that God had responded to America’s prayers.

MS NOW opinion writer Ja’han Jones called it “predictably Trumpian” that the president is reciting a passage that his supporters have used to heap praise on him. As the passage is over 400 words long, The New Republic would also like........

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