One President’s Whim. A World in Crisis.

A week into Trump’s war in Iran, his strategy is still a mystery.

By Michelle CottleJamelle Bouie and David French

Produced by Derek Arthur

Early last Saturday, President Trump announced that the United States had begun a major military operation against Iran. What followed has been a week of confusion, mixed messaging and rising casualties in a widening conflict that is causing calamity in the Gulf region. On this week’s round table, the Opinion national politics writer Michelle Cottle and the columnists Jamelle Bouie and David French discuss the dangers of another “forever war,” the challenge of defining success and viable exit strategies.

One President’s Whim. A World in Crisis.

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The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Michelle Cottle: Guys, people were anticipating some kind of attack on Iran for weeks. As of this taping, we are six days into Operation Epic Fury, as the Defense Department has named it. Given all the buildup, is it playing out as you expected?

David French: I honestly didn’t know what to expect. We had been told nothing. The president is in front of the State of the Union, all of America; he has an opportunity to explain. He has an opportunity, then, to declare that he’s going to go to Congress. We then would have an opportunity to learn what would be the war’s aims, for example. Why would we be doing this? What’s the objective? Is it attainable? What’s it based on? None of this happened.

And so, what’s happening is, you and I and Jamelle, we are watching a buildup, and the people who pay very close attention to the news are watching this buildup in the Middle East. So, we know something is coming, but buildups in the Middle East are not unusual. I mean, controversy and turmoil in the Middle East are not unusual. So, from the standpoint of, is this something that’s going to lead to the kind of war that we’re watching right now? No, I did not fully expect that in any way.

Michelle Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion. She has covered Washington and politics since the Clinton administration. @mcottle

Jamelle Bouie became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2019. Before that he was the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine. He is based in Charlottesville, Va.

David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” You can follow him on Threads (@davidfrenchjag).

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