With Trump and Iran, What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate

Ruben Navarrette
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:43:59 -0700
Opinion

SAN DIEGO — What in the world was that?

Such was my confused reaction to President Donald Trump's recent and bizarre primetime address to the nation regarding the conflict with Iran.

Naturally, confusion is par for the course whenever Trump turns his attention away from dividing the country, dismantling the Constitution and destroying the U.S. economy and focuses on what he calls his "little excursion" in the Persian Gulf.
Updated: Thu Apr 02, 2026

SAN DIEGO — What in the world was that?

Such was my confused reaction to President Donald Trump's recent and bizarre primetime address to the nation regarding the conflict with Iran.

Naturally, confusion is par for the course whenever Trump turns his attention away from dividing the country, dismantling the Constitution and destroying the U.S. economy and focuses on what he calls his "little excursion" in the Persian Gulf.

That pithy phrase is disrespectful to the thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed in the Middle East, as well as to their families who hope and pray for the safe return of their loved ones.

Besides, the wording is all wrong.

It's not "little" when the commander-in-chief moves multiple battleships and about 10,000 U.S. troops into a hostile arena where they can be attacked by Iranian missiles or drones in what our enemies would consider justifiable acts of self-defense.

Likewise, you can bet that our adventurism in the Gulf is not a mere "excursion" to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Missile strikes killed his wife and child as well as his father, the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No doubt, the new ruler hungers for revenge.

These are scary times, and Trump has made them scarier. When discussing Iran, he oversimplifies the complicated, spreads falsehoods and exudes bravado. When clarity is needed, he sends mixed messages. When Americans want to be leveled with, he offers inconsistencies.

Like much of what Trump has said in the five weeks since the United States and Israel began raining missiles on Iran on Feb. 28, the messaging behind the president's address to the nation this week was unclear, unrealistic and unhelpful.

First, the remarks were too little, too late. They seemed like a half-hearted attempt to convince Americans of the need to go to war with Iran — even though that's a moot point now since the war has been underway for more than a month.

Moreover, the speech seemed disingenuous. As the American people should know by now, Trump doesn't feel that he has to convince anyone of anything. The Mad King will do as he pleases.

In addition, the message was muddled. We've won a quick and decisive victory in that Iran has been "eviscerated" and "decimated." Yet we will keep fighting for a few more weeks so the Iranian leadership, in ceasefire negotiations, accepts a hard bargain. Yet, with every missile and bomb that hits the Iranian homeland, our adversary seems to get harder and less interested in a ceasefire.

Finally, Trump never misses an opportunity to jab at our NATO allies. That is, if those countries still are our allies. In the Trump era, you never know. Trump has abandoned the Strait of Hormuz, telling European nations, and others that transport oil through the crucial waterway, to simply "grab it." Which, he said, "should be easy" now.

That's more wishful thinking. Trump creates his own reality and then crawls into it to live happily ever after. It's like when he says that, once the conflict ends, gas prices will magically come down and the stock market will go up. Optimism is one thing, but delusion is another.

From the start, Trump's critics have labeled the conflict in the Persian Gulf an illegal war because Congress didn't declare it.

Apparently, Trump isn't the only one living in fantasyland. What does Congress have to do with anything?

If the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 taught Americans anything, it was this: "Just because you haven't formally declared war on an enemy doesn't mean the enemy isn't already at war with you."

Trump's critics are right about one thing: Congress didn't start this war. But then, to be honest, neither did Trump.

This war has been going on for nearly 50 years, and many Americans only recently began to tune in.

Iran declared war against the United States in November 1979 when it took 66 Americans hostage and held most of them for more than 400 days. In the nearly five decades since then, Iran's leaders have taken every opportunity to kill Americans, and they've bragged openly about their intention to kill many more if they get the chance.

That part is not complicated. These are not people who can be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, especially when they claim they already have enough enriched uranium to make more than one.

For Americans, Operation Epic Fury was always the right battle. What a tragedy that we couldn't find the right president to wage it.