Trump Launches Military Strikes on Iran Despite Campaigning Against Middle East Wars

# Trump Said 'I'm Not Going to Start a War.' He Is Now Prosecuting One Against Iran.

On election night 2024, Donald Trump stood before a crowd at Mar-a-Lago and made a direct promise: *"I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars."* He is now prosecuting a joint military campaign against Iran.

That quote — confirmed independently by both the [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-02-28/trump-vowed-to-end-wars-he-is-now-opening-new-front-against-iran) and [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/01/trump-promised-no-wars-now-hes-a-bush-style-regime-change-president) — is now the sharpest single point of contrast in a record that stretches back nearly a decade.

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## What Is Confirmed

President Trump announced military strikes against Iran via a video posted on Truth Social. Both the [LA Times](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-02-28/trump-vowed-to-end-wars-he-is-now-opening-new-front-against-iran) and [The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/01/trump-promised-no-wars-now-hes-a-bush-style-regime-change-president) describe the operation as "massive and ongoing" and confirm it was conducted jointly with Israeli forces — The Guardian calls it a "joint US-Israeli attack," and the LA Times references "U.S. and Israeli strikes" in corroborating coverage.

This is not the first time Trump has struck Iran. Both sources confirm that Trump previously claimed to have "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program approximately eight months earlier, describing strikes on three major nuclear facilities. The LA Times notes Trump made that claim "just eight months ago." The Guardian provides additional detail on those earlier June strikes.

Trump and his running mate JD Vance campaigned in 2024 explicitly on a peace platform. The Republican Party promoted them as a "pro-peace ticket." The Guardian cites a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Vance headlined *"Trump's Best Foreign Policy? Not Starting Any Wars"* — though that specific headline has not been corroborated in the available texts from other outlets and should be treated as single-source pending independent verification.

Congressional Democrats responded critically. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, confirmed by the [LA Times](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-02-28/trump-vowed-to-end-wars-he-is-now-opening-new-front-against-iran), called the strikes unauthorized and called for Congressional involvement.

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## The Gap Between the Claims and the Record

Trump's case for military action has been challenged by intelligence assessments and international inspectors — including agencies operating under his own administration.

The Guardian reports that Trump's stated justification — that Iran poses "imminent threats" including via long-range missiles that "could soon reach the American homeland" — contradicts a 2025 Defense Intelligence Agency report finding that Iran does not currently possess ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States. That DIA finding, and the specific projection of up to 60 such missiles by 2035, appears only in The Guardian and has not been corroborated by the LA Times. It requires independent verification before being treated as established fact.

Similarly, The Guardian reports that IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi found no evidence Iran had resumed uranium enrichment following the June strikes, and that unnamed US intelligence officials said Iran had not tried to rebuild its main nuclear sites. These claims are single-source in available texts and should be read as reported — not confirmed.

What is confirmed across both sources: Trump claimed Iran had restarted enrichment, and Trump claimed to have already obliterated its nuclear program. Those two claims, both attributed to Trump, sit in direct tension with each other.

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## What Remains Unconfirmed

Several significant claims tied to this story are either single-source or absent from available reporting and must be clearly labeled as unverified:

- **The reported death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:** The LA Times reports Trump claimed in a social media post that Khamenei was killed in the strikes. The Guardian does not mention this. This claim has not been independently confirmed in available source texts and should be treated with significant caution.

- **The counterterrorism resignation:** The story summary references Trump's top counterterrorism official resigning and stating that Iran did not meet the legal threshold of an imminent threat. This claim does not appear in the text of either the LA Times or Guardian articles. It cannot be verified from available sources and is not published here as fact.

- **The Nobel Prize remark:** The LA Times reports Trump said he no longer felt an obligation to "think purely of Peace" because he had not received the Nobel Peace Prize. This is a single-source claim of an extraordinary nature and requires independent verification.

- **The seven-country bombing list:** The Guardian's opinion column states Trump bombed seven countries — Yemen, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, and Venezuela — in his first year back in office. Nigeria and Venezuela in particular do not appear in other available source texts. This is single-source and from an opinion column.

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## The Campaign Record

The documented record of Trump's public statements on war is consistent across years. The [LA Times](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2026-02-28/trump-vowed-to-end-wars-he-is-now-opening-new-front-against-iran) reports that Trump called the Iraq war a "big, fat mistake" during a 2016 debate and said the Bush administration "lied" about weapons of mass destruction — though those specific quotes are single-source and have not been corroborated in other available texts. The same LA Times piece notes that Trump supported the Iraq war at the time it was launched, before later running against it politically.

The November 2024 victory speech quote — *"I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars"* — remains the only campaign-era statement on this subject confirmed by multiple independent sources.

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## What to Watch

- **Independent confirmation of Khamenei's reported death.** This is an extraordinary claim currently resting on a single Trump social media post cited by one outlet. Verification from international news agencies, foreign governments, or Iranian state media would be decisive. - **Whether Congress acts.** Senate Democrats have already called the strikes unauthorized. Watch for any move toward a War Powers Resolution challenge or emergency authorization vote. - **IAEA and independent nuclear assessments.** The gap between Trump's stated justification and what international inspectors have publicly reported is significant. Any new IAEA statement or independent technical assessment of Iran's nuclear status will be consequential. - **The counterterrorism resignation.** If confirmed with a named official and sourced documentation, this would directly address the legal and intelligence basis for the "imminent threat" justification. - **Reaction from within the Republican coalition.** The LA Times reports former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly criticized the strikes — a single-source claim pending corroboration, but one that points to potential fractures worth tracking.