Daily Wire host: “Trump is putting himself in a similar position to Bush. However, what I guess his argument is we're going to do it well.”
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From the February 28, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): The reason that this strike was launched now was the opportunity. And this creates a little bit of a problem for the argument for war because we were told, what, just weeks ago that the United States had totally wiped out Iran's nuclear program, just obliterated it in the strikes on Fordow and the other nuclear sites. So if the argument for war right now is that Iran was on the brink of a nuclear weapon, it creates a little tension with the arguments we're making about Fordow just weeks ago.
Really, I think the reason that the US struck now is we had the opportunity. Iran is weak economically. The regime is weak in terms of popular support. The regime in Iran just slaughtered tens of thousands of people and is extremely unpopular. So this was the opportunity to do it. President Trump laid that out. He said that if the Iranian people want their freedom, this is their last chance probably for generations.
So where does this leave President Trump? A lot of people care a lot more about the Trump administration and the United States than they do about anything happening in Iran.
What's amazing is, with with this strike, President Trump has put himself in a very similar position to George Bush in Iraq. It was the same justification for going to war — same justification was weapons of mass destruction that pose an imminent threat to America, and it was backed up by the same ideological justification, which is that the people want freedom.
So what's so amazing is President Trump launched his political presidential career in 2015, in many ways running against the Bushes and against the stupid wars against all of that.
Now President Trump is putting himself in a similar position to Bush. However, what I guess his argument is we're going to do it well. So initially, it was Bush had the wrong idea. Now the argument would be, well, Bush might have had the right idea, but he did it poorly.
And the one thing I got to say with Trump on foreign policy is don't bet against Trump on foreign policy. He has the best record on foreign policy of any president in my lifetime, including George H.W. Bush.
But this is a much higher risk, because by putting himself in the same position as George W. Bush, President Trump will either wind up with the legacy that George W. Bush had, which is to say not a great one in his own party or in the other party, or President Trump could correct the errors of a quarter century ago. President Trump could reinvigorate a muscular US foreign policy that corrects the entire Bush era. All of which is to say, the stakes are very, very, very high. This is not just dropping the MOAB. This is not just taking out a dictator in Latin America. The stakes are as high as they as can be for foreign policy. This is going to be a longer operation. There's gonna be a lot more negative images already. There's the school that was struck in Iran, death toll reportedly around 53. The stakes are much, much higher. President Trump is taking a risk with his entire foreign policy and potentially his entire presidential legacy.