After laying out his ever-shifting goals for the war in Iran, Donald Trump predicted that combat operations could last four to five weeks or “far longer” — and then abruptly pivoted to praising his new White House drapes.
“I can't imagine being in the service or a former service member watching the president digress just a few minutes into a talk that was supposed to be about the lives of the service members lost over the weekend to discuss his great drapes and his design at the White House,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst legal studies Professor Jamie Rowen said during a conversation on Substack Live.
“It’s really hard to watch and think this is my commander in chief,” she added.
Except for a video that he released on his social media platform, Trump didn’t deliver any public statement about the joint U.S.-Israeli military operations in Iran for more than two days, but Rowen noted that he’s been keeping the public in the dark for far longer, citing an order advising U.S. embassy staff to leave Israel on Friday.
“Everyone knew, and the Americans did not,” Rowen said. “We were surprised Saturday morning that this happened, and I think that says that this is a president who has decided that the American people don’t matter to him. And this is really against the nature of democracy.”
During the 26-minute interview, Rowen discusses the War Powers Act, international law and the ramifications of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments mocking the “stupid” rules of engagement.
“I think it’s okay to hold both truths, that the executive does seem to be operating in an area that appears largely lawless and only constrained by politics, and that we think that having law that restricts its use of force is a good thing for us and the world,” Rowen noted.
Watch the conversation in full at the top of this newsletter.
