People overexaggerate about how badly or long-drawn this war is going. Iran has been hit hard, and has caused the entire Middle East to despise it. Gulf countries will not let Iran off the hook after its unprovoked attacks on their territory. And this war, as of writing, is barely reaching its third week. 

But, it’s undeniable that most Americans do not like this war, even if they dislike Iran. What’s the problem here? While President Donald Trump has done the right thing by coming to the aid of Iranian protestors and respond against decades of Iranian violence and threatening against America, he and his administration are failing on the rhetorical front. Missiles and bombs can destroy America’s enemies, but American public opinion can result in a lost war. The problem is that the Trump Administration has constantly taken an antagonistic approach to anyone asking questions about the war, rather than clearly setting goals and providing a consistent moral framework to justify the war.

The MAGA movement’s rhetoric has always been inflammatory, fleeting and subject to the whims of Trump’s always-changing mind. It’s no wonder that the American public doesn’t trust him to carry out this war. Good rhetoric has been able to keep the American public motivated in crises worse than the strangling of the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump needs to reconsider how he talks with the American people about this ongoing war.