Trump Illegally Starts Another Expensive, Unpopular War Overseas While Republicans Cut Americans’ Health Care At Home
Over the weekend, President Trump sabotaged an ongoing peace process by entangling Americans in another unpopular foreign war in the Middle East after illegally launching an airstrike without Congressional approval or the support of the American people. Trump already put Americans at risk by tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement seven years ago that was keeping them from getting the bomb and walked away from nuclear negotiations after just eight weeks this year.
The strike cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to execute, and Trump officials admit that we don’t know how successful the bombing campaign was. Meanwhile, as Trump starts another expensive foreign war abroad, he and his Senate Republican allies are moving forward with a tax scam that takes away health care from 16 million Americans to pay for generous tax handouts to billionaires and big corporations.
TRUMP’S RECKLESS WAR BY THE NUMBERS
- HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS SPENT ON AN ILLEGAL OVERSEAS MILITARY OPERATION:
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- $340 MILLION IN BOMBS ALONE. The U.S. dropped 14 “bunker buster” GBU-57A/B MOP bombs, which cost around $20 million each, and launched 30 Tomahawk missiles, which cost around $2 million each.
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- NEARLY $40 MILLION IN FLIGHT COSTS. The mission was declared “the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history,” and involved at least seven stealthy B-2 bombers – which cost taxpayers $2.2 billion each – burning approximately $150,000 per flight hour over the course of a 37-hour mission. That brings the total flight cost to $38.85 million, not including the cost of sending a squad of decoy B-2 bombers westward across the Pacific Ocean as a diversion.
- OVER 40,000 AMERICAN TROOPS PLACED ON HIGH ALERT. In the aftermath of the strike, the more than 40,000 American troops currently stationed in the Middle East have been placed on high alert in anticipation of retaliation by Iran or its military proxies in the region.
- MOST AMERICANS DISAPPROVE. A plurality of Americans (46%) disapprove of Trump’s airstrike on Iran, according to two YouGov polls. Before the bombing, only 16% of Americans thought the US should get involved in conflict between Israel and Iran.
TIMELINE OF TRUMP’S FAILED FOREIGN POLICY
- November 2011: Trump Warned Against Starting A War With Iran. “Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate. He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get re-elected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran.”
- October 2012: Trump Called Launching A Strike In Iran “Desperate.” “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.”
- September 2013: Trump Called Attacking Iran “Saving Face.” “I predict that President Obama will at some point attack Iran in order to save face!”
- September 2013: Trump Criticized Attacking Iran As A Ruse To ‘Show How Tough [Former President Obama] Is.” “Remember what I previously said — Obama will someday attack Iran in order to show how tough he is.”
- November 2013: Trump Criticized Attacking Iran As An “Inability To Negotiate Properly.” “Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly — not skilled!”
- 2017: Trump Criticized President Obama Over Bombing Syria and Demanded He Get Congressional Authorization.
- May 2018: Trump Abandoned Negotiations With Iran and Withdrew From A Pact Limiting Nuclear Progress. Trump tore up the JCPOA, which was preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and abandoned ongoing negotiations in just a few weeks.
- January 2020: Trump Assassinated A Senior Iranian Military Commander Without Congressional Authorization. On Jan. 3, 2020, Trump assassinated a senior Iranian military general – Qasem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force – in Iraq without Congressional authorization.
- January 2024: Trump Promised To “Turn The Page” On Never-Ending Wars If Re-Elected. Trump told supporters during a rally that he would “turn the page forever on those foolish, stupid days of never-ending wars. They never ended.”
- June 2025: Trump Launched Strikes Against Iran Without Congressional Approval. Trump launched an illegal and unconstitutional war with Iran without Congressional approval or notification and against the assessment of his intelligence agencies.