‘God help us’: Critics aghast at report Trump privately eyeing ground troops in Iran
Critics quickly sounded alarms online after a report that President Donald Trump has privately shown interest in sending U.S. ground troops into Iran.
According to an NBC News exclusive, Trump has discussed the idea with aides and Republican officials as part of a broader vision for a post-war Iran in which the country’s uranium would be secured, and the United States could cooperate with a new Iranian government on oil production.
The discussions inside the Trump White House are not focused on a large-scale invasion, the sources told NBC, but rather on the possibility of deploying a small contingent of U.S. troops for specific missions. Trump has not made any final decisions or issued orders related to sending any troops, the report on Friday added.
Still, the idea sparked sharp reactions on social media from political commentators and foreign policy observers.
“God help us all,” posted former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor, now co-host of the Pod Save America podcast.
“Everything—literally everything—the pro-diplomacy, anti-war camp has been warning about for years is happening as predicted,” Dylan Williams of the Center for International Policy warned on X.
Pennsylvania Capital-Star reporter Nick Field added in his own social media post: “If only there was a historical analogy of Americans sending in just a few troops only to [be] pulled further and further into a quagmire. Something that might've happened in Donald Trump's formative years.....”
Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan, founder of Zeteo News, offered a blunter reaction, telling his followers on X the report was “Madness,” while analyst Malcolm Davis with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute warned the move was “quite likely” to become “a slippery slope to a ‘forever war.'"
“And here we go….” wrote University of North Georgia rhetoric professor Matthew Boedy.