Bigmouth Strikes Again

A running list of the dumbest things Trump has said about the war in Iran

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Winston Churchill.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In times of war, some leaders demonstrate a strength of character and an ability to inspire their people in ways that define them for the rest of history.

And then there's Donald Trump.

Riding high on Election Night in 2024, Trump vowed, "I'm not going to start wars. I'm going to stop wars."

Today, though, he's a frantic psychopath who would rather blow up the world than face accountability for the heinous Epstein-related child-sex crimes a majority of reasonable people (including 86% of Democrats, 51% of Independents and 29% of non-MAGA Republicans) believe he was involved in.

Trump's former best friend speculated in December 2018 that if "cornered like a rat," Trump would "bomb Iran."

Now that Trump has fulfilled that prophecy, he is proving once again just how dumb, selfish, and lacking in empathy he truly is.

Here's a running list of the dumbest and most tone-deaf things Trump has said about the war in Iran

February 28: "Last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program."

February 28: "We're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future."

February 28: "The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war."

February 28 (to the Iranian people): "Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government."

March 1 (on news of the first US casualties): "Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is."

March 2: "Somebody said today, they said, ‘Oh, well, the president wants to do it really quickly, after that, he’ll get bored.’ I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this."

March 2 (shortly after saying he won't get bored of the war): "See that nice drape... I picked those drapes in my first term. I always like gold."

March 2 (on Truth Social): "Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully."

March 2 (on Iran’s highly predictable attacks on Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates): “That was probably the biggest surprise.”

March 3: “I have never had more compliments on something I did.”

March 3: “The worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person. That could happen.... you go through this and then in five years, you realize you put somebody in who was no better."

March 4: "When crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen."

March 4: "We're doing well on the war front, to put it mildly. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15."

March 4 (inadvertently suggesting he allowed Iran to get closer to a nuclear weapon than any previous US President): "If we didn't hit, within two weeks they would've had a nuclear weapon."

March 5 (on gas prices): "If they rise, they rise."

March 5 (when asked if Americans should worry about terror strikes at home): "I guess."

March 5 (to Jonathan Karl): "In my first term, I built the military. In my second term I'm using it."

March 7 (in Truth Social post rejecting the use of UK's aircraft carriers): "We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!"

March 9 (as economic toll rises): "I think the war is very complete, pretty much."

March 9 (on why he says the war is "very complete" while Hegseth says "this is just the beginning"): "Well, I think you could say it both."

March 9 (walking back the idea that the war is "very complete"): "We have won in many ways. But we haven’t won enough."

March 9 (trying not to call it a war): "We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. And I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion."

March 9 (on why he falsely claimed Iran bombed its own school with a Tomahawk missile it doesn't have): "I just don't know enough about it."

March 11 (as multiple commercial vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz): "The straits are in great shape."

March 11 (comparing the war to a casino game, amid concerns about Trump insiders trading on their advance knowledge of the war): "You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet in the first hour, it was over."

March 12 (as the average price of gas for US consumers surged to $3.60, up 28% from its January low of $2.81): "When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money."

March 13 (asked when the war will end): "When I feel it in my bones."

March 14 (after telling the UK he didn't need their help because the war was already won and saying the Strait of Hormuz was in great shape): "Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others… will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat."

March 15 (asked if he thought it was appropriate to send a fundraising email showing him wearing a baseball cap during the dignified transfer of the remains of six soldiers killed in his war): "I do."

March 16 (on Iran attacking other countries in the Middle East): "Nobody expected that. We were shocked."

Fact check: "Numerous analysts had long said that such an Iranian response was possible or likely – and Iran itself had warned that it planned to target US allies in the region if attacked," noted CNN.

March 16 (shortly before all four living past Presidents denied this happened): "I spoke to one of the former presidents who I actually like.... And he said, ‘I wish I did what you did'.... I don’t want to get into who. I don’t want to get him into trouble... I could even ask him that: "Would you like me to reveal your name?'"

March 16 (after begging other countries to "send Ships" to "the Hormuz Strait"): "We don't need anybody."

March 17 (after Joe Kent, Trump's choice to run the National Counterterrorism Center, quit in protest of Trump's war): "I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security."

March 19: In a day that will live in infamy, Trump, seated next to the Japanese Prime Minister compares his attack on Iran to Pearl Harbor (which Americans are traditionally taught was a "cowardly" and "dastardly" act): "We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?"

March 23 (on peace talks that Iran denied were even taking place); “If it goes well, we’re going to end up settling this. Otherwise, we just keep bombing our little hearts out.”

I created a similar list to the one above at the start of Covid. As I did then, I'll add to this new list in the days ahead.

Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments!

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