Trump made 38 Iran peace claims as war dragged on
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- Trump claimed at least 38 times between late March and early June that he was on the verge of reaching a peace deal with Iran, according to CNN cited in the piece
- Hegseth declared Operation Epic Fury — the Feb 28 campaign against Iran — "a historic and overwhelming victory" at an April Pentagon press conference, even as the war continued
- Trump previously claimed Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" with "monumental damage," a claim made nearly a full year before the recent peace-deal assertions
- A memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and lift Iranian sanctions has been painted by Trump as a major win, citing a "record high" stock market and "tumbling" oil prices
- Hegseth declared the Pentagon press office a "classified space" earlier this month, curtailing journalists' ability to report on national security — a move the piece argues makes Vietnam's much-mocked "Five O'Clock Follies" look transparent by comparison
- The piece traces the term "credibility gap" to David Wise's May 1965 usage and cites the Pentagon Papers' June 1972 publication as the origin of what it frames as today's "credibility chasm"
- The author invokes historian Barbara Tuchman's prescription that preventing future wartime "betrayals" depends on "educating the electorate to recognize and reward integrity of character and to reject the ersatz," timed to America's 250th anniversary
Why it matters: The piece makes a concrete accountability claim grounded in the source: by declaring the Pentagon press office a "classified space," the current administration has removed a reporting channel that even the heavily criticized Vietnam-era daily briefings provided. Combined with 38 unverified peace-deal claims and a "victory" declaration made while combat continued, the article argues public trust in wartime leadership has been structurally undermined — with journalists now structurally locked out of the kind of skeptical questioning that exposed Vietnam-era deceptions.
