The hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” unpacked Thursday morning why the war in Iran has made it impossible for President Trump to continue to “bend reality” to fit his narrative.
“For a decade now, he’s been able to kind of bend reality to what he wants reality to be. He’s been able to pull a good chunk of Americans, at least 40% at almost all times, with him. We’ve seen that,” host Joe Scarborough noted, adding, “That just doesn’t work, unfortunately, with war.” Scarborough argued that Trump “realizes that” but urged the president to be “honest” with the American people about the harsh realities of this new, growing conflict in the Middle East.
“He needs to follow through by doing what great military leaders and political leaders have always done and be honest,” Scarborough argued. “He’s right that the Iranian regime has been an epicenter of terror for 47 years. But the idea that we’ve won? We haven’t. The idea that this is an excursion and we’re going to just zoom on back home? Not so.”
“You have to tell the truth about the war, not just for Americans’ sake and not just for the troops’ sake, but for the president’s sake — to prepare for what’s coming ahead,” Scarborough said, noting that 147 American service members have reportedly been injured so far in the conflict. “This just is not going to be easy.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself below.
“Morning Joe” co-anchor Willie Geist echoed Scarborough’s calls for greater transparency from Trump and his administration. “Explain to the public why we’re doing this,” Geist urged. “I mean, why have those service members died? Why have 140 service members been injured? Why might this last weeks and weeks and weeks? Why might there be boots on the ground?”
“They’re treating it like a game,” Geist lamented. “They’re putting out these dumb memes and trivializing what war really is.” New York Times columnist and occasional “Morning Joe” panelist David French, meanwhile, warned both Trump and the American people watching at home that there is no telling when the recently ignited war in Iran will actually conclude.
“When you’re talking about the duration of a war, the enemy gets a vote. You don’t get to just sort of say, ‘Well, it’s over now,’ unless the enemy says, ‘Oh, I agree,’” French explained. “One of the issues here is this unconditional surrender demand. That can’t be a real thing in this context. So what is the end game here? Iran gets a vote as to when this thing ends.”
