Bush 41 had approval ratings in the high 80s when he spent time praying in the White House with Billy Graham hours before unleashing U.S. ground forces in Kuwait against Iraq. Likewise, Bush 43 had sky-high approval ratings when he addressed a joint Congress after 9/11. They were still in the high 70s when the Allied intelligence agencies convinced the U.S. and U.K. Congress and Parliament of weapons of mass destruction, which to this day have as much chance of being found as O.J. Simpson’s wife and lover’s real killer.
President Trump came off his recent SOTU address with a modest bump in approval, bringing him over the 50% threshold. If the deadly February 28th strike against Iran looks as “clean” and precise a week from now, and if it appears Iran is on the road to “regime change,” the POTUS should bask in the glow of unheard of approval ratings for him (keeping in mind probably 35% of the electorate would never under any circumstance give him credit for anything).
Here’s the kicker, as stated above: It’s all downhill from here. Bush 41’s ratings sank so fast that it fostered a significant challenger in the Republican presidential primary and led to a general election third party candidacy that allowed Bill Clinton to eke out a win in 1992. Bush 43 allowed himself to be mired in political mud over an extended stay in Iraq that dragged his approval ratings into the high 20s and made it virtually impossible for John McCain to gain any traction against Barack Obama.
Why should we think it will be any different in 2026 for Donald Trump? The President calls it “liberation.” A rose is a rose is a rose. This is regime change 301. We acted in deference to a foreign nation’s interests as opposed to ours and this “king/lackey” relationship will define today’s (2/28/26) action six months from now more than anything accomplished today militarily (it’s important to know who’s the king and who’s the lackey).
This brings me to the post linked below. I don’t think I’ve ever agreed summarily with a Chinese Communist Party press release. Yet the bulk of what this communique says could’ve been composed by a speechwriter for Ron or Rand Paul (both of U.S. Capitol Hill fame). It has become quite apparent that no matter which party sits in the White House, or which side of the “war” argument a White House occupant campaigned on, it’s just too much for the most powerful man in the world to turn his back on a war which just may put his name up in neon lights for pundits and historians a hundred years from now to parse and applaud.
War is addictive. War is the health of the state. War is what permits the state to expand exponentially with little to no mounted opposition. One-seventh of the U.S. economy is premised on going to war every few years or becoming impotent and irrelevant. It gets rich destroying things; then it gets rich rebuilding that which it destroyed. The profits from warmongering and reconstruction find their way into the campaign coffers of enough U.S. politicians to make this cycle bipartisan.
It was an anomaly that Trump’s first term produced no wars. It actually came up with the Abraham Accords. This was absolute anathema to the military-industrial-big tech-big finance coalition, which in their eyes drives the economy. They can argue in the ears of both parties that if they don’t prosper, the economy will flounder. And that means political suicide for incumbents.
It may take a long time to sift the wheat from the chaff as this war grinds on and the unknowable surrounding regime change won’t become self-evident for a while. But war in one area gives strength to the hormones of those seeking war in another theater. This Iranian action will embolden the cadres beating the drums for war in Ukraine and Taiwan.
It never ends. There are too many people who stand to gain from another’s suffering. Perhaps it’s fortunate that Trump’s name will not be on the ballot again.
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The Chinese Defense Ministry on Saturday denounced the United States as a “war addict” for launching strikes on Iran.
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2026/02/28/china-denounces-u-s-as-war-addict-for-strikes-on-iran/
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