Trump’s Iran Rhetoric Is Not a War Crime

His threats are overheated and politically unhelpful, but his domestic opponents are skewing the facts in response.

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President Donald Trump holds a press conference accompanied by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 6, 2026.

Evan Vucci/Reuters

Andy McCarthy said it best: The president’s “disgraceful rhetoric” around this war is condemnable. His public statements have been anything but reassuring to the majority of Americans who are apprehensive about the course the war has taken. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the president wrote, by way of example, Tuesday morning. On the domestic front, remarks like these only make the president’s life (as well as that of his fellow Republicans) more difficult.

And yet, at the risk of lapsing into a tendency to which Trump’s biggest fans are prone by grafting logic onto what are little more than wild rhetorical gesticulations, there is instrumental utility in projecting unflinching determination in wartime.

Noah Rothman

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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