President Donald John Trump has said that the US should not have been in Iran and it was a mistake to trigger the war (together with Israel). He also admitted that there were miscalculations before the attack on the West Asian nation. At the same time, the US President has justified his action, stating that it became important (for Washington DC) to stop Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

In an interview aired on Fox News on May 30, 2026, President Trump shared his views on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. He stated that the US intervention in Iraq was a disastrous decision and that Washington DC “should not have been in Iraq“. He further expressed strong misgivings regarding US military involvement in Iran, stating that the US should “not have been involved” in the escalating conflict. “If you look at what happened with Iraq, we did so bad, that was such a foolish thing, what we did. Shouldn’t have been there in the first place, by the way, and we shouldn’t have been in Iran,” stated the president during the interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.

Immediately thereafter, Trump marshalled arguments in support of the Iran War and his own decision. He told Lara: “But Iran has the capability. If we didn’t hit them with B-2 bombers nine months ago, they would have a nuclear weapon right now and will be a whole different story. You probably wouldn’t have had Israel, but you probably wouldn’t have had a Middle East, and then where do they go from there?“

Interestingly, the president claimed that the US deliberately spared parts of Iran’s military, stressing: “Their military, we sort of left it alone because we think that their military is somewhat moderate. They have other people that aren’t moderate. We’ve taken them. We’ve taken different forms of leadership out. We’ve actually left their military alone.” Trump further said that “people would be surprised to hear that because mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that’s, you know, for 40 years can never rebuild“.

Meanwhile, the US President hinted that his administration would rather secure a diplomatic settlement than return to military action, saying: “A favourable agreement could eventually be reached with Tehran. The US is going to make a great deal with Iran.” He added: “If negotiations fail, we’ll just go back and finish it off militarily.” According to Trump, a negotiated settlement would help avoid further bloodshed, apart from saving “a lot of lives“. Although the president described Iranian leaders as “very tough negotiators“, he maintained that Washington DC was steadily achieving its objectives.

Read: The ‘Suez Moment’ Of US

It may be noted that many in the US and other parts of the globe consider Operation Epic Fury unjustifiable because of the pre-emptive nature of the conflict, the inversion of traditional alliance models and the lack of a clear, singular justification for the war.

Currently, President Trump is facing public criticism in his own country as millions of US citizens have participated in massive No Kings and anti-war demonstrations across major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, to protest his highly aggressive military policies. The movement features an unprecedented level of domestic and international pushback against the Trump Administration‘s confrontational foreign actions and military interventions. A lack of Congressional approval has prompted the president to declare a 60-day ceasefire. By asserting that the ceasefire was in effect, the US Government has argued that “active hostilities” have paused, effectively stopping the 60-day clock and sidestepping the deadline to secure formal legislative approval.

In such a situation, President Trump has seemingly made an attempt to keep his approval ratings stable by presenting arguments in support of his decision, yet again. He logged a 39% approval rating in Emerson’s May 2026 Poll, down from 40% in April; while his disapproval rating declined one point to 55% (as the survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on May 24-25 and has a margin of error of three).

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das