Did We Commit Treason Yesterday? Trump Thinks So.

Yesterday's article faced up to the realization that the inconclusive war against Iran made our allies and adversaries view the U.S. as a nation in decline. It showed an Iran that had done serious damage to neighboring Arab states and has taken control of the Hormuz strait.

On Air Force One returning from China, David Sanger, a seasoned analyst for The New York Times, sent Mr. Trump into a tirade when he asked:

“What would the use be in repeating the bombing? You did it for 38 days and you did not get the political changes in Iran.”

Trump shot back,

"I got a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you, write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy. We had a total military victory."

He listed the military's accomplishments — destroying Iran's navy, air force, air defenses, radar, leadership.

"We’ve had a total victory, except by people like you that don’t write the truth…I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write, but you and The New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst. You should be ashamed. I actually think it is treason when you write, like, ‘They’re doing well militarily,’ [when] they have no navy, no air force, no anti-anything.”

That would seem to be us as well.

Trump had earlier said in a social media post that it was “virtual treason” when “fake news” reports “that the Iranian enemy is doing well, militarily, against us.” At a Florida event he said,

"We get the radical Left to say, we're not winning , we're not winning. They don't have any military left. It's unbel..it's actually, it's actually, I believe, it's treasonous."

Two weeks ago he said,

"If you see CNN, you'd think they're winning the war. If you read The New York Times, it's actually seditious, in my opinion."

The military has done its damnedest against a so far implacable foe, but the media is expected only to accentuate the positive, to quote an old lyric.

At a March briefing three weeks into the war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was steamed at reporters in attendance:

“A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step,”

He declared at a Pentagon news conference on April 8th that Operation Epic Fury had “decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come.” Hegseth laments the lack of a truly “patriotic press” in America.

Four days ago White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales stated that Iran’s military had been “crushed” and anyone who “thinks Iran has reconstituted its military is either delusional or a mouthpiece” for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Another spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, pronounced that,

"The Iranian regime knows full well their current reality is not sustainable, and President Trump holds all the cards as negotiators work to make a deal.”

On March 9th, the war only 10 days old, Mr. Trump told CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang, "I think the war is very complete, pretty much." He has said we've already won the war, that Iran had accepted all his terms, and "frankly, maybe we're better off not making a deal at all." On April 12th in an interview by Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, Trump said about the war,

"I think this won’t be that much longer. They’re wiped out, Iran. They’re wiped out."

Mr. Trump's greater regret should be that the media has reported all of the positive things he has said, living in his own movie.