Foreign Policy

Even Dictatorships Don't Fight Wars This Way

The American public never got a satisfying explanation for why Trump attacked Iran in the first place.

Matthew Petti | 5.12.2026 12:25 PM

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(Illustration: Grant Smith/Jason Lange/Reuters/Sipa USA/SOPA Images/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

Two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump did not clearly explain his goals in the war with Iran, a poll released by Reuters and Ipsos on Monday shows. Reuters and Ipsos also found that two-thirds of Americans blame an increase in gas prices—caused by fighting in the oil-rich Persian Gulf—on the Republican Party.

The poll is only the latest in a long line of polls showing that the American public did not want the war to start and did not like the way it unfolded. And the Trump administration clearly knows it. Trump started the war by surprise on a Friday night. After the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April, the administration claimed that Congress no longer gets a say under the War Powers Act, because the clock has reset on the war.

Buoyed by the quick success of Venezuela's diet regime change, Trump publicly and privately said that the war was only supposed to last the weekend. Why bother making the case to the public if the war would be over before they had a chance to weigh in? Since then, Trump has argued that the public still........

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