Goldberg: The idea that the president was anti-war was always delusional

"What Trump has always hated isn't conflict but sacrifice, the notion that American power should ever be constrained by a veneer of idealism or care for global opinion. As he said at a 2015 rally: I'm really good at war. I love war, in a certain way, but only when we win."

"It is true that he broke with key elements of neoconservative ideology, particularly when it comes to nation-building and promoting democracy. In 2016, he set himself apart from his Republican rivals with his willingness to call the Iraq War a disaster. But what Trump has always hated isn't conflict but sacrifice."

"One of his chief complaints about the Iraq War, let's remember, was that George W. Bush had failed to take Iraq's oil. Those on the isolationist right who thought Trump shared their views made the mistake of inferring too much from his domestic policy."

JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard endorsed Trump in 2024 based on a false premise that he is anti-war, a notion his campaign promoted. Trump's actual record reveals he broke with neoconservative nation-building ideology and criticized the Iraq War, but his opposition stems from opposition to sacrifice and idealism constraining American power, not from pacifism. Trump has explicitly stated his love of war when America wins. His chief complaint about Iraq was that the U.S. failed to seize the country's oil. Isolationist supporters misinterpreted his domestic policy positions—anti-immigration, anti-free trade, and conspiratorial—as evidence of broader anti-interventionism, a fundamental misreading of his character and priorities.

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