SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"He's weak and he's ineffective," then-private citizen Donald Trump said of former President Barack Obama in 2011. (Photo: Twitter/Screengrab)
Video of Trump Warning 'Our President Will Start a War With Iran Because He Has Absolutely No Ability to Negotiate' Resurfaces
"The only way he figures that he's going to get reelected—and as sure as you're sitting there—is to start a war with Iran," Trump said of Obama in 2011.
Jan 02, 2020
Video footage of then-private citizen Donald Trump warning in 2011 that "our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate" resurfaced Thursday night after the U.S. assassinated Iran's top military leader and six others in a drone strike in Baghdad, sparking fears of a catastrophic regional and possibly global conflict.
Trump, of course, was referring to former President Barack Obama, who he called "weak and ineffective" and accused of attempting to start a war with Iran to boost his reelection chances.
"So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected--and as sure as you're sitting there--is to start a war with Iran," Trump said at the time.
Obama went on to win reelection in 2012 without launching a war with Iran. In 2015, the U.S., Iran, and other major nations adopted the Iran nuclear agreement, which Trump effectively shredded last year.
Watch the clip, which Washington Post video editor J.M. Rieger tweeted Thursday night:
\u201cTrump on Nov. 16, 2011:\n\n\u201cOur 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 reelected \u2014 and as sure as you're sitting there \u2014 is to start a war with Iran.\u201d\u201d— JM Rieger (@JM Rieger) 1578019692
In his second tweet since the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani--the first was an image of the American flag--Trump wrote that "Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!"
Critics voiced a mixture of alarm and confusion in response to the president's brief statement. "Trump is just dropping vague, wrong, unhelpful comments into a tense and volatile situation," said the Post's Josh Rogin.
Robert Maguire, research director with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, added, "The guy who sold himself as the greatest negotiator in history is tweeting about how hard it is to negotiate with the country he might have started a war with instead."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Video footage of then-private citizen Donald Trump warning in 2011 that "our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate" resurfaced Thursday night after the U.S. assassinated Iran's top military leader and six others in a drone strike in Baghdad, sparking fears of a catastrophic regional and possibly global conflict.
Trump, of course, was referring to former President Barack Obama, who he called "weak and ineffective" and accused of attempting to start a war with Iran to boost his reelection chances.
"So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected--and as sure as you're sitting there--is to start a war with Iran," Trump said at the time.
Obama went on to win reelection in 2012 without launching a war with Iran. In 2015, the U.S., Iran, and other major nations adopted the Iran nuclear agreement, which Trump effectively shredded last year.
Watch the clip, which Washington Post video editor J.M. Rieger tweeted Thursday night:
\u201cTrump on Nov. 16, 2011:\n\n\u201cOur 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 reelected \u2014 and as sure as you're sitting there \u2014 is to start a war with Iran.\u201d\u201d— JM Rieger (@JM Rieger) 1578019692
In his second tweet since the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani--the first was an image of the American flag--Trump wrote that "Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!"
Critics voiced a mixture of alarm and confusion in response to the president's brief statement. "Trump is just dropping vague, wrong, unhelpful comments into a tense and volatile situation," said the Post's Josh Rogin.
Robert Maguire, research director with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, added, "The guy who sold himself as the greatest negotiator in history is tweeting about how hard it is to negotiate with the country he might have started a war with instead."
Video footage of then-private citizen Donald Trump warning in 2011 that "our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate" resurfaced Thursday night after the U.S. assassinated Iran's top military leader and six others in a drone strike in Baghdad, sparking fears of a catastrophic regional and possibly global conflict.
Trump, of course, was referring to former President Barack Obama, who he called "weak and ineffective" and accused of attempting to start a war with Iran to boost his reelection chances.
"So the only way he figures that he's going to get reelected--and as sure as you're sitting there--is to start a war with Iran," Trump said at the time.
Obama went on to win reelection in 2012 without launching a war with Iran. In 2015, the U.S., Iran, and other major nations adopted the Iran nuclear agreement, which Trump effectively shredded last year.
Watch the clip, which Washington Post video editor J.M. Rieger tweeted Thursday night:
\u201cTrump on Nov. 16, 2011:\n\n\u201cOur 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 reelected \u2014 and as sure as you're sitting there \u2014 is to start a war with Iran.\u201d\u201d— JM Rieger (@JM Rieger) 1578019692
In his second tweet since the U.S. assassination of Qassem Soleimani--the first was an image of the American flag--Trump wrote that "Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!"
Critics voiced a mixture of alarm and confusion in response to the president's brief statement. "Trump is just dropping vague, wrong, unhelpful comments into a tense and volatile situation," said the Post's Josh Rogin.
Robert Maguire, research director with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, added, "The guy who sold himself as the greatest negotiator in history is tweeting about how hard it is to negotiate with the country he might have started a war with instead."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.