Alan Zendell, March 6, 2026

It’s essential that we maintain our focus on why a striking majority of Americans are opposed to our war against Iran. There are two issues that are completely distinct from each other, and Trump, like other presidents before him, would love to blur the line between them. Let’s be clear. There are few if any Americans who are mourning the loss of the Supreme leader and nearly fifty of his senior leaders.

It was inevitable that Israel and the United States, and therefore the world would have had to confront Iran’s murderous regime one day, and there’s logic to the argument that since the conflict was inevitable, we should embrace it at a time of our choosing. Hardly anyone disagrees that Iran in February, 2026 was weaker than it’s been in decades, while there was considerable uncertainty about how long it might take them to be a serious threat with nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles.

None of the above is in dispute regardless of politics and ideology. The point of contention, which is part of the much larger concern about the future of America, is whether our president can be permitted to recklessly ignore the Constitution. That document reserves the authority to declare war exclusively to Congress, which seems to ignore the reality that as Commander on Chief of the armed forces, the president can create a state of war simply by ordering an attack on another country. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that as president he believes he has the right to do anything he wants to. His imperial ambitions combined with his narcissistic mental illness make Trump himself the greatest existential threat to our future.

Yet, as has been the case since Trump’s first term, the MAGA-dominated Republicans in Congress have once again failed to do their jobs. Typical of this abject abrogation of their responsibilities was Senator Susan Collins (R, ME.) For years, Collins has talked a good game about being a centrist who believes in reining in extreme policies at both ends of the political spectrum. But her statement, yesterday, that she would vote against a war powers resolution limiting Trump’s ability to wage an unfettered, inconstitutional war, once again demonstrated that when really put to the test, self-interest about a likely close re-election race made all her words meaningless. Shame on her and her disingenuous colleagues!

Collins and the others who folded gave Trump exactly what he hoped for. Conventional wisdom says that when we’re involved in a major military conflict, we can never take actions that weaken the president’s options. A better description in this case is conventional stupidity. All during 2025, a majority of Americans feared that Trump would go to war with Iran for political reasons, whether to distract from his domestic failures, to give him potential options for controlling the midterm elections, or simply to gratify his psychological need to be the toughest badass in the world. He’s done exactly that, for all of the above reasons.

By failing to obtain Congressional approval for the attack on Iran and by ignoring entreaties by our allies to use restraint, Trump changed what might have been viewed as a righteous war by virtually all Americans into an issue that could tear the country apart from within. It’s clear that the administration did not expect Iran to attack the Gulf nations that host American interests and never gave any thought to the safety and likely need to evacuate nearly a million Americans who were in the region when Trump ordered the attack. And as the June attacks on Iran depleted our stock of defensive options and laser-guided munitions, many experts warn that an extended campaign will leave America vulnerable all over the world.

Never to be deterred, however, Trump is now threatening Ecuador and Cuba while we have no idea how long the war with Iran will last. Energy prices are soaring, our labor market has stagnated, and investment markets are extremely volatile. As Trump suggested we might have to rely on a ground troops to finish the job in Iran, Americans are reminded of the 7,000 American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. All this has voters opposed to Trump’s war in Iran by surprisingly large majorities, and that makes it even more likely that the midterm elections will be disastrous for MAGA and Trump.

Trump never admits weakness and never backs down. As the midterm elections near, he will become even more desperate than his erratic behavior suggests he already is. All this points to eight months of increasing chaos as Trump tries to impact, if not delay or cancel the election. As we’ve noted before, the Supreme Court may be our republic’s last line of defense, since Congress has defaulted once again.

And then, there are the Epstein files, and the memos released by DOJ today which detail an accusation of sexual assault against Trump by a woman who claims she was thirteen at the time. 2026 is going to be the most turbulent year we’ve seen since nine-eleven.