5 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Illegal War on Iran
It’s like a “War On Terror” 2.0 speedrun
MoveOn has seen a lot during our 27-year history. But what we’re witnessing right now from the Trump administration toward Iran has us questioning whether it’s 2025 or 2003.
It’s like a “War On Terror” 2.0 speedrun.
Over the past week, we’ve watched President Trump start a new, illegal war, defying constitutional authority granted to Congress. He justified those illegal strikes on Iran based on lies and scaremongering. Trump, of course, also delved into xenophobia to induce domestic panic and burn through mountains of our tax dollars for “shock and awe.” What took months or even years to play out in the run-up to Iraq now takes only hours.
Here are five things you need to know about Trump’s illegal war on Iran:
1) It’s unconstitutional.
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution makes clear that only Congress has the power to declare war. We’re encouraged by Rep. Ro Khanna & Rep. Thomas Massie’s War Powers Resolution in the House, along with Sen. Tim Kaine’s companion bill in the Senate, but currently just over 50 members of Congress have signed on.
Only authoritarians stand to gain from war. The biggest beneficiaries would be Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, who would exploit the conflict to distract from his deeply unpopular domestic agenda and consolidate more power. Meanwhile, ordinary people—across the Middle East and here at home—would bear the cost. Resisting the MAGA movement’s authoritarian ambitions means confronting them everywhere they operate, at home and abroad.
2) It’s unpopular.
A recent YouGov poll found that 85% of U.S. adults do not want the U.S. to go to war with Iran. What may be surprising to some is that 80% of Republicans don’t support this! 92% of Democrats said they oppose the war along with 83% of Independents. What these results highlight is something we’ve long known to be true: Americans are fed up with endless, costly wars in the Middle East.
An April poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that most Americans preferred a diplomatic approach with Iranian leadership and supported a new nuclear deal, similar to the one President Barack Obama brokered.
In addition to us, Trump now has to answer to his own base, to whom he promised “No New Wars.”
3) It’s based on lies.
Days before Trump’s illegal strike on Iran, CNN reported that there was zero evidence proving Netanyahu and Trump’s claims that Iran was on the brink of having a nuclear weapon. In reality, they were years away, at best. The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Jim Himes, also told CNN he had not seen any intelligence that proved Iran was working toward building a nuclear weapon.
But Trump’s inner circle tried lying about the urgency anyway. In response to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s baseless statement that there was “imminent danger” that justified Trump bypassing Congress and violating the Constitution, Senator Chris Murphy clapped back, “There was no imminent threat. I got briefed on the same intelligence as the Speaker.”
Then there are the lies about the effectiveness of Trump’s strikes. The administration insists that the three purported nuclear facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan were completely destroyed and that Iran’s “nuclear ambitions” are now vanquished. Except there are layers to their dishonesty here.
“Anybody who says they have any idea whatsoever about whether these raids did anything other than create a big boom and a lot of dust has no idea what they’re talking about,” Rep. Himes said during that same CNN appearance. Then, on Sunday, the Trump administration admitted they actually don’t know the status or fate of Iran’s uranium supply.
Vice President JD Vance made the rounds on the Sunday morning political news programs this weekend, attempting to thread the needle to appease the MAGA base which had been conditioned to accept Trump’s mythical “anti-war” stance while also insisting this isn’t about regime change in Iran.
Trump then immediately nullified Vance's attempts to nuance and soft sell the war, when he posted on Truth Social, “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”
4) It’s reckless and dangerous.
In short: Trump’s attack on Iran runs the risk of escalation in the Middle East, jeopardizing the lives of Iranians, Israelis, U.S. troops stationed in the region, and more, and unfortunately we’re already seeing signs of that.
On Monday, Iran responded directly against the United States through a retaliatory strike on the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Iran and Israel may likely continue trading volleys of missiles, further jeopardizing the safety of each country’s population.
Border czar Tom Homan rushed to Fox News to declare that Iranian “sleeper cells” have now been activated in the United States, a xenophobic trope that the administration intentionally deployed to sow mistrust of Iranian Americans, stoke fear and division throughout the country, and ultimately open a new front into Trump's barbaric mass deportation scheme.
As some have pointed out, the consequences of Trump’s actions may now actually inspire Iran to work toward obtaining a nuclear weapon.
And, leading us into our final point, Iran’s parliament just greenlit the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
5) It’s costly.
The Strait of Hormuz is a major shipping route that borders Iran and through which nearly 20% of the world’s oil supply travels. Should Iran’s national security council proceed with its closure, Americans would see higher prices at the pump.
Trump promised no new wars and lower prices, but now, not even six months in, he’s started a new war which could create higher prices as a result.
We’re sure many of you wondered how, at a time when Republicans are insisting that social safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP must be cut, could the United States possibly afford another war?
As it stands, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are actively trying to kick 16 million people off their health care through their billionaire scam bill.
New analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University found that, sadly, if enacted, Trump’s bill to cut health care would lead to over 51,000 deaths every single year.
They write that this includes the following:
1) 11,300 deaths from the loss of Medicaid or Affordable Care Act Marketplace coverage due to 7.7 million people losing coverage
2) 18,200 deaths due to the loss of Medicaid coverage among 1.38 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries, causing loss of access to low-income prescription drug subsidies
3) 13,000 deaths among Medicaid enrollees in nursing homes due to the rollback of CMS’s 2024 nursing home minimum staffing rule
“We have money for war but not to give people healthcare. We have money for war but not to help people with their housing struggles. We have money for war but not for educating our future generations,” Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman posted on Sunday.
In 2003, MoveOn members organized, protested, and made the morally correct case against George W. Bush’s illegal war in Iraq.
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