Prevaricator in Chief
It was one year ago this month that the United States military “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, according to President Trump. In a release from the White House dated June 25, 2025, the administration headlined a news release with these words:
“Iran’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated — and suggestions otherwise are fake news.” When reporters did in fact suggest that Trump was his usual hyperbolic self, and that it might actually be a stretch to use a term like obliteration, the president was enraged.
Again, quoting from the White House release:
“Obliteration is an accurate term!” You could easily imagine him stomping his feet and holding his breath to make it so. But was it? No.
Almost immediately came the hedges. Vice President Vance, in the same release, offered, “I can say to the American people with great confidence that they (Iran) are much further away from a nuclear program than they were 24 hours ago.” Doesn’t quite sound like obliteration to me.
The Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, was quoted saying, “I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, and I can also say that we set it back by years.”
Ok, but was it “obliterated?” Special Envoy, and full-time real estate guy, Steve Witkoff was one who naturally agreed with Trump, his friend, and boss. “There’s no doubt that it was obliterated. So, the reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous.”
That should settle it for everybody, right, except for one teeny-tiny question: why did we join Israel again in attacking Iran this past February? Well, according to Trump, the Iranian regime still harbored “sinister nuclear ambitions.” So, make the rubble jump?
I don’t want to belabor the point, but it’s pretty obvious that Trump was blustering and bullshitting about the U.S. success in Iran last summer and has been doing it ever since the start of this latest incursion, or conflict, or exercise, or tussle, or whatever he wants to call it short of “war.”
Whatever, the war’s over, the administration said after one week of bombing. The Iranians are desperate to end the conflict, Trump alleged. Then, exasperated by Tehran’s intransigence, he threatened to wipe out the entire Persian civilization if the mullahs didn’t melt. So, what did they do?
They closed the Strait of Hormuz and severely damaged the world oil economy. Freighters are still idling in the waters of the Persian Gulf while Trump tries to convince everybody he’s really putting the screws to the theocratic regime.
Last June, Trump boasted that “We’ve achieved a 90 percent reduction in their ballistic missile launchers and a 95 percent reduction in drone attacks.” I guess you could try to convince the Gulf States Iran has lately been targeting that that is true, but it would be a very hard sell.
Was he just making this stuff up or was someone feeding him this nonsense? If it’s the latter, that’s pretty dangerous. If it’s the former, it’s truly awful. But Trump lies all the time about things large and small.
In October of 2019, when U.S. forces killed ISIS mastermind, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, Trump said he died “like a dog,” and that ISIS was — you guessed it — “obliterated.” There was no real proof of that, but who cares? Just Trump being Trump.
And yet, imagine President Obama coming before the microphones to declare Osama bin Laden dead before he was actually, well, killed.
Did you all see Trump’s heated exit from a Meet the Press interview with Kristin Welker? What really triggered him was Welker’s insistence that there is still no proof that Trump’s loss — or Joe Biden’s victory by seven million votes — in 2020 was rigged. When she asked Trump where’s the evidence for his claims, Trump insisted there was a lot of evidence and that the fake news was simply ignoring it. Naturally, he called her “stupid” and “crooked.” I mean she’s a woman after all.
Asked to explain himself, Trump simply can’t. Some have suggested he has convinced himself that he won, and that he truly believes there was fraud. I don’t buy it. I believe he knows he been lying about it for five years. That’s why he reacts the way he does when challenged. And what rude challenge it was!
Show us some evidence, Mr. President.
He can’t, because there isn’t any. Never has been. The election denier’s argument is that this was a conspiracy so vast that it’s impossible to identify. What?
I bring up the Meet the Press argument as a way to shed some light on the negotiations, such as they are, with Iran. The Iranians keep calling Trump’s bluff, keep embarrassing him, keep exposing his threats as all hat and no cattle. This makes Trump very mad.
The Iranian nuclear program was “obliterated.” The 2020 election was rigged. Trump is desperate to make us all believe these lies. His desperation shows. He so wants these statements to be true. And he’s surrounded himself now with people who tell him that they are.
But we know he’s lying.
And I think he does too.