President Trump made something crystal clear during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae on Thursday, as reported by the White House: American troops are not going into Iran. Period.
The president’s direct statement came after an anonymously-sourced Reuters report claimed the administration was considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East, according to Reuters. You know the drill—unnamed officials, vague sourcing, maximum panic. The kind of story that makes you wonder if the leakers want to push us toward war or just want to make Trump look bad. Maybe both.
“Do you intend to lift sanctions on Iranian oil, and do you intend to potentially put U.S. troops or more troops in the region?” a reporter asked, as captured in White House footage. Trump didn’t hedge. He didn’t equivocate. He just said no.
“No, I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you, but I’m not putting troops,” the president responded, according to the official White House transcript. Classic Trump—direct, slightly combative, and completely unambiguous.
The Reuters report had claimed options included securing safe passage for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, potentially requiring troops on Iran’s shoreline, with four sources including two U.S. officials confirming this, as per Reuters. Funny how those officials never seem to have names when the story makes the administration look like warmongers.
Trump also took a moment to remind everyone where the economy was before Iran started heating up, based on his comments in the same press interaction. The Dow hit 50,000. The S&P reached 7,000. Gas was dropping toward $1.85 in some places. Everything was working.
“I saw what was happening in Iran, and I said, ‘I hate to make this excursion, but we’re going to have to do it,’” Trump explained, per the White House transcript. “And I actually thought the numbers would be worse… when it’s completed, we’re going to have a much safer world.”
So let’s get this straight. The same media that spent years calling Trump a reckless warmonger is now running stories based on anonymous leaks suggesting he’s about to invade Iran. And when he flatly denies it—to a reporter’s face, on camera—they’ll probably find a way to spin that too.
Here’s the reality: Trump has been consistent on this. No new foreign wars. America First means rebuilding here at home, not nation-building in the Middle East. The establishment hates it. The neocons hate it. The defense contractors really hate it. But the American people? They voted for exactly this.
Providence watches over the bold.
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