Nicolai Haugsted
Trump gets a harsh reality check after claiming he could have won two wars in a week.
Donald Trump has rarely been reluctant to discuss his own abilities, particularly when it comes to foreign policy and military strategy. The president has repeatedly portrayed himself as a leader capable of resolving conflicts that frustrated generations of American politicians.
His latest remarks, however, have prompted an uncomfortable comparison with his own record in office.
With the midterm elections approaching, Trump traveled to Iowa on Sunday to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson, who is running against Democrat Josh Turek.
During his appearance in Dubuque, the president turned his attention to two of America’s longest and most controversial military conflicts.
According to Trump, both could have ended considerably sooner if he had been the one calling the shots.
The claim quickly attracted criticism from political commentators, who pointed out that Trump had already spent four years in charge of one of those wars.
Trump says Vietnam could have been won in just seven days
During his speech, Trump suggested that the United States had approached the Vietnam War incorrectly and claimed he could have secured victory in a matter of days.
“I could have won Vietnam in a week,” he told the crowd.
He then criticized the American military’s use of Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide deployed extensively during the conflict.
“They dropped whatever the hell that crap is that hit the forest: Agent Orange! Instead of going after Ho Chi Minh and the other cities.”
His remarks appeared to suggest that a different approach to attacking North Vietnamese targets could have delivered a much faster victory.
The Vietnam War, however, involved years of complicated military operations, political instability and fighting against both conventional forces and guerrilla fighters.
American combat involvement lasted for years before the United States withdrew its remaining combat troops in 1973. Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.
Trump did not explain precisely how his proposed strategy would have produced victory within a week.
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Afghanistan was apparently another one-week job
The president also claimed that he could have resolved the war in Afghanistan in approximately seven days.
That statement immediately drew attention because, unlike Vietnam, Afghanistan was a conflict Trump actually inherited during his first presidency.
American troops remained involved in the war throughout his four years in the White House, from January 2017 until January 2021.
Rather than achieving a military victory, his administration negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban in February 2020.
The agreement established a timetable for American forces to leave Afghanistan, although the final withdrawal took place under President Joe Biden in August 2021.
The chaotic conclusion to the war became a major political controversy, but critics argue that Trump’s earlier negotiations helped shape the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal.
For several observers, that history made his latest claim particularly difficult to reconcile with his record.
Analysts quickly challenge Trump’s version of history
Gregory Brew, an Iranian oil analyst at Eurasia Group, questioned the president’s remarks in a post on X.
“Throughout the entirety of Trump’s first term, the U.S. was at war in Afghanistan. Not only did he not win it, but his administration negotiated the deal that made the events of 2021 essentially unavoidable. This is a curious boast to make,” Brew wrote.
His criticism focused on the difference between Trump’s hypothetical claim and the decisions his administration actually made.
Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, raised a similar objection.
“He could have ‘won’ Afghanistan during his first term. But he spent most of it trying to get out,” Goldberg wrote.
Both commentators highlighted the same central contradiction.
Trump had already occupied the position of commander-in-chief during the Afghanistan conflict, yet his administration pursued negotiations aimed at ending American involvement rather than securing the kind of rapid victory he now claims was possible.
Trump gets mocked over his military claims
Other reactions were considerably less diplomatic.
Liberal political commentator Alex Cole used the president’s remarks to revisit his history of avoiding military service during the Vietnam War.
“Draft dodger Trump couldn’t defeat algae in a swimming pool, but he was going to conquer the jungles of Vietnam in a week,” Cole wrote on X.
Trump received multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam era, including a medical deferment related to a diagnosis of bone spurs.
The president’s military history has repeatedly attracted scrutiny, particularly when he has commented on military service and American veterans.
Cole’s response was clearly intended as ridicule rather than a serious assessment of military strategy.
Nevertheless, it illustrated how quickly Trump’s boast became material for criticism online.
Trump’s Taliban agreement returns to the spotlight
Alex Ward, a national security reporter for The Wall Street Journal, also challenged Trump’s comments by highlighting the agreement negotiated during his first administration.
“Trump oversaw four years of the war in Afghanistan, and made a deal with the Taliban—cutting out the Afghan government—that set the table for Biden’s disastrous withdrawal,” Ward wrote.
The February 2020 agreement between Washington and the Taliban was negotiated without the Afghan government participating as a party to the deal.
Critics have argued that the arrangement weakened the Afghan government’s position and contributed to the conditions preceding its collapse.
However, responsibility for the withdrawal and its consequences remains a subject of political debate, with decisions made under both the Trump and Biden administrations attracting criticism.
Trump’s suggestion that Afghanistan could have been won within a week therefore raises an obvious question about why such a victory was not achieved during his first term.
The president offered no detailed explanation during the Iowa rally.
