Bulwark Takes - Trump’s Iran Lie Is “Mission Accomplished” All Over Again

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Will Saletan takes a deep dive into Donald Trump’s lies about the Iran strikes, revisits his past criticism of George W. Bush’s Iraq war messaging, and unpacks how Trump is now discrediting accurate reporting to defend his narrative.

Hey, it's Will Salatan from The Bulwark. Donald Trump has a story that he wants you to believe about his bombing of Iran. He wants you to believe that he's nothing like George W. Bush and that what Trump is doing in Iran is nothing like what Bush did in Iraq. He's lying and I'm going to show you the facts. So here's the story Trump wants you to believe. This is what he told the world on June 21st, right after the bombing. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

Obliterated? Wow. Are you sure about that? Because Iran's nuclear program is obliterated and this was complete and total obliteration. And there's no's nuclear program is obliterated. And this was complete and total obliteration. And there's no doubt that it was obliterated. Really? Because here's what an actual U.S. intelligence assessment said about that bombing. So this is an early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the Pentagon's

intelligence arm. As of right now, it does not appear that they ended or obliterated Iran's nuclear program. Instead, they only set it back by months, according to people who were briefed on the assessment. Oh, so not obliterated. So when Trump heard that, he stopped claiming that it was obliteration, right?

Let's see what he said after that report came out. It was obliteration, right? Let's see what he said after that report came out. It was obliteration. It was a complete obliteration. Till Iran wants to meet. As you know, their sites were obliterated. No, it was obliterated like nobody's ever seen before. It was a total and complete obliteration. It was totally obliterated.

Huh. So, it looks like the president is misrepresenting the intelligence, and he's doing that to defend a preemptive military attack to stop weapons of mass destruction in a Middle Eastern country that begins with the letters IRA. Where have we seen this before? Ah, there it is. It was George W. Bush. Remember this speech?

Bush was standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in 2003 with a big banner that said, mission accomplished. And here's what he told the world. Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. But it wasn't true. That was May 1, 2003, just six weeks after we invaded Iraq. After Bush gave that speech, the war went on for another six years.

More than 35,000 American servicemen and women were killed or wounded in that war. Not to mention the civilian casualties. And you know who remembers that? Donald Trump. Let me show you what Trump said in 2016 when he first ran for president about the Bush administration and the Iraq war. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none, and they knew there were none. And Trump also went after Bush for that speech about how the mission was supposedly accomplished. You had him on the aircraft carrier saying all sorts of wonderful things, how the war

was essentially over. Guess what? Not over. Trump was right. Bush told the world that the attack on Iraq was a complete success and we had totally done the job. And that was wrong. And that is exactly what Trump is doing now.

He's telling you that we obliterated Iran's nuclear program and we're all done and there won't be any more bombing or fighting over there and that is a lie. And that's not even the scummiest thing he's doing. The scummiest thing is that Trump is attacking the patriotism of anyone who points out that he's lying. Here's what he said at a press conference last week about news organizations that reported the sobering intelligence assessment of his bombing. He said the media, by exposing his lie, were undermining our brave men and women. They put their lives on the line and then they have, and I'm not referring to you, but real scum, real scum come out and write reports that are as negative as they could possibly be. It should be

the opposite. You should make them heroes and heroines. And Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hagseth, went further. Here's what he told the press. There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that by because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible. And time and time again, classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad. And what's really happening is you're undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots. Oh, yeah.

Hagseth isn't trying to protect his boss. No, he's just deeply concerned about our brave men and women. And those fake news reporters, the ones who actually told the truth about the intelligence in Iran, they're the bad guys because they're undermining morale. Come on, let's not beat around the bush. Trump knows it's either dumb or dishonest to claim that the mission is totally accomplished when it isn't. You heard him say it about Iraq and you heard him accuse Bush of lying about the intelligence. So when Trump does the same

thing now and when he says it's unpatriotic to call him on it, he knows exactly what he's doing. What he wants to obliterate is the truth. See you next time.