Election night, November 2024. We hear the words, “I’m not going to start wars, I’m going to stop wars,” come from the current President Donald J. Trump. Less than two years later, the United States launched strikes on Iran, which officially started a war with Iran. A campaign that was centered around being a ‘peaceful president’ has turned into a presidency that has entered a war with no end date in sight.
Throughout his campaigns, specifically the 2016 and 2024 elections, Trump positioned himself as a leader who promotes an anti-war stance and who will not fight “endless wars” or become involved in any foreign entanglements. A leading position within his campaigns was his idea of being ‘America-first’ to ensure a peaceful presidency and to avoid becoming a part of any violence occurring around the world. Despite several remarks from an anti-war stance, and disagreeing with decisions on wars of former presidents, a shift in position has become apparent with the actions of his presidency.
During the 2016 election season, Trump criticized former President George W. Bush’s leadership in the war against Iraq. At a presidential debate in 2016, Trump said, “The war in Iraq was a big fat mistake…We should have never been in Iraq,” and later added that Bush should have been impeached for leading the United States into the war. Furthermore, in 2011, Trump criticized former President Barack Obama on his stance with Iran, and said, “Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly–not skilled!” Over a decade later, negotiations were not met due to an inability to make them properly, but not by Barack Obama–by Donald Trump himself.
In real time, we are watching our president take back the promises he made to not only his loyal base of supporters, but to the country as a whole. Each campaign Trump held was centered around his desire to become a peaceful president and to ensure the needs of Americans are met. A peaceful president would prioritize the negotiation process to prevent war-measures from being taken. However, negotiations were stalled in early 2026, leading to the strikes launched on February 28. After the announcement of the strikes was made, Trump said that Iran still wanted to talk, but that he deemed it was “too late.” Improper negotiations have put the United States into the most significant conflict since the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These war measures have only taken place in Trump’s second term in office, as he boasted that he had started no wars during his first term. ‘Endless wars’ were what he was determined to avoid, but in the days following the initial strikes, there have been statements made by the president saying that the U.S. could be engaged in conflict with Iran for a longer time frame than he expected.
Not only have we seen a full war begin during this term, but we have also seen a higher amount of military violence and federal law enforcement being used in the last year. Funding has been increased for the United States military as Trump proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027 to build a ‘dream military.’ Trump has also placed National Guard troops under federal control in major cities such as Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois. His reasoning for these deployments is to ‘crack down’ on protests, crime, and illegal immigration. Immigration has also seen an extremely violent side during this second term, with an increase in ICE officials being sent across the country and using violent tactics to carry out deportations. Furthermore, Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to override governors and deploy active-duty troops across the country, targeting mainly “the enemy from within,” Democrats. From a campaign full of peace to a presidency full of threats and violence, a two-man show appears to be sitting in the White House.
Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, any individual from any political party can see the hypocrisy lying in the words of Donald Trump. The United States is at the frontlines of a significant conflict overseas, and we are in the middle of constant violence on our own soil. Americans are waiting for the peace we were promised, but the funds to do so have been spent on the violence we thought was over.
