Donald the Dove*
Who could have seen this coming?
Welcome to the Flashpoint.
As I write this, US and Israeli warplanes are bombing Iran, potentially setting off a regional war that could define the next year—and even longer.
Already, strikes have killed dozens of children, a signature of how the US and its allies wage these wars.
A couple of thoughts from me below the break.
President Donald Trump ran in part in 2024 on an implied promise not to start any new wars. It was always a lie—in 2020, he started the last year of his first term by assassinating Iranian leader Qasem Soleimani in an attempt to start a war—but a selective reading of the tea leaves led people who should have known better to pretend that the Republican was a better bet for non-intervention.
Part of the reason that Trump was able to get away with portraying himself as pro-peace was that the Democratic establishment has spent the last 10 years leaning into the national security state. In 2024, the failure of this approach resulted in losing the White House.
When you’re campaigning with Liz Cheney and endorsing a version of her views—the below from Greg Price is not entirely honest, surprise surprise—you leave yourself open for attacks like this from psychopaths like Stephen Miller.
In the run-up to Election Day, JD Vance was declaring Trump the “candidate of peace.” He explicitly used Cheney as a counterpoint, noting that she had supported the wars of choice under the George W Bush administration and had pushed for a more bellicose foreign policy during Trump’s first term.
I don’t believe that campaigning with Cheney was the definitive thing that won Trump the election, but I do believe that it helped create a permission structure for contrarian voices and right-wing partisans alike to muddy the waters on foreign policy. This was avoidable!
The president as reluctant to get involved in regional wars of choice was a perception of the president that defined the early days of his second term. New York Republican Claudia Tenney nominated the president for the Nobel Peace Prize just days into his term and, after that effort failed, FIFA gave him a knock-off version of the award.
Trump’s idle ramblings about cutting the military budget in half in February 2025 led conservative pundit Glenn Greenwald to crow over Trump’s critics on the left as bad faith losers.
Greenwald would continue this push against Trump critics for weeks after.
He’s since soured on the president but has not, to my knowledge, ever admitted fault for taking an addled old man at his word in spite of reams of evidence to the contrary.
Let’s hope this marks the end of taking the US conservative movement at its word on anti-intervention.
I’ve been asked about how people can support me at this moment as I face a lawsuit from Matt Taibbi over my book’s reporting on his career. I stand by the work.
You can read our motion to dismiss here. It’s pretty exhaustive in exposing what a farce the suit is.
If you want to help and have the wherewithal to do so, there are two easy ways to help me fight this legal challenge:
buy the book (50% off on Amazon right now)
consider a paid subscription 👇