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MaddowBlog-Exactly 6 years later, Trump approves the Iranian strikes he called off in his first term
In the president's second term he’s doing many of the same things he wanted to do in his first term, but didn’t. Take strikes in Iran, for example.
June 21, 2019: Trump calls off a plan to attack three Iranian targets.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-23T15:21:17.379Z
June 21, 2025: Trump approves a plan to attack three Iranian targets.
He keeps doing things he wanted to do in his first term, but didn’t. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/exactly-6-years-later-trump-approves-iranian-strikes-called-first-term-rcna214485
Exactly six years to the day later — on June 21, 2025 — the public heard the opposite news. Whereas Trump abandoned a plan to attack three Iranian targets in 2019, the president approved a plan to attack three Iranian targets this year. Instead of taking deliberate steps to de-escalate, Trump and his team chose to open the door to a new and prolonged conflict in the Middle East.
The dangers, significance and potential consequences of this decision are obviously of dramatic geopolitical importance, but it’s also worth appreciating the burgeoning political pattern. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump recently noted:
In Trump’s first term, he was talked out of deploying U.S. troops onto American streets. He would occasionally follow the advice of his party’s “establishment” when making key personnel decisions. He held off on launching political wars against his own country’s institutions of higher learning. He nearly approved strikes on Iranian targets, but reversed course at the last minute.
In Trump’s second term, in other words, he’s doing many of the same things he wanted to do before his 2020 defeat, but didn’t.
Just a couple of days before Election Day 2024, John Mitnick, who was general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, wrote a memorable thread via social media. The conservative Republican and Heritage Foundation veteran, who pleaded with voters not to return his former boss to power, explained that the United States did not go “completely off the rails” during Trump’s first term because “there were just enough senior officials who served as ‘guardrails.’”......
In 2018, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan talked about his private efforts to prevent Trump from making enormous mistakes. “I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say, ‘I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy,’” the Wisconsin Republican said on his way out the door.
Now, no one is killing “crazy stuff.” No one is speaking up to “avoid that tragedy.” Instead of steering clear of disasters, the president is aiming for them — without voices of dissent.
There was some talk before Trump’s second inaugural that Americans should expect a different kind of Republican presidency upon his return to power, because he’d learned lessons during his first four years that he’d now apply in his second term.
What much of the public might not have appreciated is the degree to which he’d learned the wrong lessons, clearing the way for worse decisions.
The dangers, significance and potential consequences of this decision are obviously of dramatic geopolitical importance, but it’s also worth appreciating the burgeoning political pattern. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump recently noted:
A lot of things happened in 2020 that Donald Trump didn’t like. During the first six months of 2025, he has expended a lot of energy and presidential power on reversing those things or trying to make it the policy of the federal government that they didn’t occur.
In Trump’s first term, he was talked out of deploying U.S. troops onto American streets. He would occasionally follow the advice of his party’s “establishment” when making key personnel decisions. He held off on launching political wars against his own country’s institutions of higher learning. He nearly approved strikes on Iranian targets, but reversed course at the last minute.
In Trump’s second term, in other words, he’s doing many of the same things he wanted to do before his 2020 defeat, but didn’t.
Just a couple of days before Election Day 2024, John Mitnick, who was general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, wrote a memorable thread via social media. The conservative Republican and Heritage Foundation veteran, who pleaded with voters not to return his former boss to power, explained that the United States did not go “completely off the rails” during Trump’s first term because “there were just enough senior officials who served as ‘guardrails.’”......
In 2018, outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan talked about his private efforts to prevent Trump from making enormous mistakes. “I can look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say, ‘I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy, I avoided that tragedy,’” the Wisconsin Republican said on his way out the door.
Now, no one is killing “crazy stuff.” No one is speaking up to “avoid that tragedy.” Instead of steering clear of disasters, the president is aiming for them — without voices of dissent.
There was some talk before Trump’s second inaugural that Americans should expect a different kind of Republican presidency upon his return to power, because he’d learned lessons during his first four years that he’d now apply in his second term.
What much of the public might not have appreciated is the degree to which he’d learned the wrong lessons, clearing the way for worse decisions.