Nearly a full year ago, before most of the Republican presidential hopefuls had even announced their candidacies, Politico reported on part of Donald Trump’s 2024 plan. The headline read, “Trump’s ‘24 game plan: Be the dove among the hawks.”
The article added, “Those close to Trump’s campaign operation say he plans to try and paint himself as an anti-war dove amongst the hawks. They believe doing so will resonate with GOP voters who are divided on, but growing wary of, continued support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.”
Politico quoted a person close to the Trump campaign who described the Republican as “the peace president.”
The report came to mind this week watching the former president participate in a town-hall event on Fox News, where the Republican peddled a specific boast to the Iowa audience:
“I had no wars. I’m the only president in 72 years. I didn’t have any wars. … Take a look at wars. Again, I didn’t start. I wasn’t involved in wars. … You know, I just saw something where I was the only president for 78 years, no wars started.”
Trump liked his rhetoric on the subject so much that he used his social media platform to promote his comments after the event.
A day later, the United States and Britain launched military strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, and it occurred to me that American voters who harbor deep skepticism about the use of force abroad might very well start to think that Trump is, in fact, the “dove” of the 2024 race.
That would be a mistake.
It might seem like ancient history, but just seven months into his presidency, the Republican threatened to pursue “a possible military option” against Venezuela. Two months later, Trump said he might be forced to “totally destroy” North Korea with “fire and fury.” A year later, after that, he also threatened a military confrontation with Iran.
Meanwhile, Trump massively increased foreign drone strikes. He approved the mission that killed Qassim Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds Force. He ordered airstrikes against Syria. He expanded airstrikes in Somalia. He also hired John Bolton to serve as White House national security advisor. As for Trump and wars, the U.S. war in Afghanistan started long before his term in the White House, but despite ridiculously untrue rhetoric about bringing the troops home in 2020, it was President Joe Biden who actually ended the conflict. Since leaving office, the Republican has raised the prospect of a military offensive in Mexico and sending U.S. troops back into Afghanistan. I can think of a great many words to describe Trump. “Dove” isn’t one of them.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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