There is no one left to sell Trump's war

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There is no one left to sell Trump’s war
One month into his war of choice with Iran, Donald Trump will finally address the nation on Operation Epic Fury

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published April 1, 2026 12:25PM (EDT)


(Salon) Tonight, on April Fools’ Day — the first night of Passover, with the bond markets closing early tomorrow ahead of Good Friday — Donald Trump will finally address the American people about the war he started with Israel in Iran. It has taken him more than a month to do so.

The administration seems to believe that if it can just find the right messenger or the right primetime moment, the narrative for war will click into place. But the timing of Trump’s address, after weeks of deflection and delay, dropped into a narrow window between market closures, feels revealing. Trump’s war in Iran is built on so many contradictions that MAGA’s disciplined propaganda machine of administration officials, media outlets like Fox News, podcasters and influencers is starting to crack under the strain.

For weeks the president has tried to outsource the job of selling the war to the American people, first to the Pentagon, as former Fox News anchor turned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was supposed to be the perfect vessel for this message. Bombastic, unwaveringly loyal and constitutionally incapable of doubt, Hegseth has stood at the Pentagon podium for four weeks and attacked reporters, called dead service members a PR operation designed to make “the president look bad” and belligerently insisted each offensive action in Iran was a military success.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was awkwardly dispatched to soothe the financial markets while doubling as a kind of economic war correspondent. The nation’s top economic official argued that the war is under control because markets are “functioning,” that disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are “manageable” and, ironically, that energy price spikes are “transitory.” On one level, it makes sense. This war is being fought as much through global trade as with airstrikes. The administration knows that if the financial system panics — if oil prices spiral further or if shipping grinds to a halt — the political consequences will be immediate and severe. Thus their priority has not been trying to explain the conflict to the American people. They are trying to manage the market reaction to it. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/01/there-is-no-one-left-to-sell-trumps-war/