Trump has spent years deriding foreign entanglements. Now, he's taken the U.S. to war with Iran

By — Matthew Lee, Associated Press Matthew Lee, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Trump has spent years deriding foreign entanglements. Now, he's taken the U.S. to war with Iran Politics Mar 2, 2026 11:01 AM EST WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has taken the United States into war with Iran despite decades of self-professed aversion to foreign entanglements, particularly in the Middle East, and repeated pledges to focus primarily on the Western Hemisphere with an "America first" agenda. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Enter your email address Subscribe Form error message goes here. Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm. Trump's predicate for joining Israel in attacks on Iran's leadership, military and critical infrastructure this weekend was that Iran posed unacceptable and imminent risks to U.S. and allied interests. Similar arguments were made in the aftermath of Trump's action last month to remove former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power in a military strike. Yet even his closest advisers have been unable to point to any specific threat to the U.S. from Iran that required urgent action. Trump had said a previous strike on Iran had "obliterated" its nuclear capability and the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report last year that Iran was probably 10 years away from having a missile that could reach the U.S. With the top ranks of the Iranian government killed in the first hours of the attacks, a leadership vacuum in Tehran coupled with bitterly divided Iranian diaspora opposition groups could pull the United States into exactly the kind of prolonged conflict that Trump has said he wants to avoid. Less than two days after the Operation Epic Fury began, U.S. lawmakers and Middle East diplomats and experts offered conflicting assessments of the road ahead....