Asked how the conflict has affected the midterms, Trump called the war overdue and said the United States may hit Iran again.
President Trump said Thursday that “many great patriots” love the Iran war and argued that earlier presidents should have launched it long ago.
CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump how the conflict had affected the midterm races as he departed the White House for Iowa. Trump acknowledged that some people oppose the war, then claimed, “Many people, many great patriots, really love it.”
“This should have been done a long time ago by other presidents, the Iran war,” Trump said. “We’ve knocked the hell out of them, and we may do it a little bit further.”
The remarks put Trump’s political argument for the Iran war in plain view: he cast the conflict as a long-delayed act that his own supporters welcome, even as he conceded that others do not.
The next day, Trump told reporters that the United States could end the war quickly but questioned whether Washington should “finish it off” or let it “wither,” according to Reuters.
The CBS exchange recorded Trump’s position without ambiguity: he said the war came too late, claimed patriots love it, and left the door open to more attacks.