Vague and contradictory Trump says Iran war ‘won’, but not ‘won enough’

At one of the most consequential moments of his two terms in office, wartime president Donald Trump on Monday delivered a vague and contradictory forecast for how long the United States will continue to fight in Iran and what the ultimate goal of the US military campaign there will be.With oil hovering above $100 a barrel for much of Monday and Middle Eastern allies fearing a further tumble into regional conflict, Trump appeared in Doral, Florida with the mission of calming global markets and reassuring skittish allies that he has a clear vision for how to end the largest US intervention in the Middle East since the Iraq War.If there is one, it was not delivered in this press conference.In a 35-minute appearance, the US president eschewed the specifics to hammer home how thoroughly the US has destroyed Iran’s military and to bolster suspicions that there has been little planning for what comes next. After floating remarks that the war was “very complete, pretty much” to a CBS News reporter in a phone call, he then evaded a reporter’s question about whether that meant the war could wrap up this week. “No but soon. I think soon. Very soon.”Reporters tried again. “You said the war is ‘very complete’. But your defense secretary says ‘this is just the beginning.’ So which is it?”“I think you could say both,” Trump replied. Straight away he added: “It’s the beginning of building a new country”. Never mind that Trump and his top advisers had ruled out managing an effort at nation-building in Iran; hours have passed and indeed Trump’s own vision for Iran seems to change with every telephone call he has taken from a reporter in the last ten days.Thanks to his CBS call, there was a sense he may be preparing to announce a drawdown. But he stopped short of a mission accomplished moment here and instead said the war would continue.Trump leaves after speaking to reporters during a news conference. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images“We could call it a tremendous success right now or we could go further,” he said. “And we’re going to go further.”“We have won in many ways,” he said in a characteristic moment during a speech to Republican allies before the press conference. “But we haven’t won enough.”It was a head-scratcher and Democrats quickly jumped on those remarks to say that Trump’s goals for the Iran conflict were incoherent or simply absent.“One word to sum up Trump’s press conference: clueless,” wrote Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader from New York. “He can’t articulate a plan or a vision because he has no plan or vision. He can’t even decide whether or not the country is at war. He’s risking the world economy and the lives of millions on whims and vibes.”There were other reminders of how US foreign policy has now fully passed through the looking-glass. Trump on Monday said that he would relax sanctions on certain countries sales of oil to help calm markets, reversing his own policy of increasing economic pressure on Russian oil sales to help end the conflict in Ukraine. He then added that the US may not ultimately return those sanctions once global markets return to normal. “Who knows … maybe we won’t have to put them on, there will be so much peace.”But in the most striking moment, Trump suggested that Iran had covertly obtained a Tomahawk missile and then used it to strike a girl’s school in the city of Minab, killing more than 168 people – most of them children.Asked whether the US would accept any responsibility for the strike, which occurred not long before the US hit a naval base nearby, Trump suggested: “Tomahawks are used by many countries,” and that “Iran has some Tomahawks.”That was more than many reporters in the room could stomach.“You just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war,” said one reporter, before asking why “you’re the only person in your government saying this.”“Because I just don’t know enough about it”, Trump responded. “I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation”.