In the fifth week of the war, Trump continues contradicting himself on its objectives and how Americans are affected
When Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury alongside Israel on 28 February, his administration had settled on a set of stated, and broad, objectives: destroy Iran’s missiles, eliminate its navy, prevent a nuclear weapon.
Over a month later those objectives have multiplied, contracted and contradicted each other.
In the fifth week of the war alone, Trump said the war had nothing to do with oil, then posted that the US should “take the oil & make a fortune”. He described the war as nearly over and simultaneously threatened weeks of escalating infrastructure strikes in a primetime address. And within 48 hours of that, he went from telling other nations they could reopen the strait of Hormuz themselves once the US left, to insisting Washington could “easily” do it.
Here is how the story shifted over the week.
