Mission Unaccomplished

He didn’t destroy Iran’s nukes; he destroyed credibility. When the President lies about war, the fallout isn’t radioactive—it’s political, moral, and damn near irreversible.

Guest article by Michael Cohen

There’s a lie. Then there’s a whopper. And then there’s the kind of dangerously misleading spin that finds its way from the lips of a sitting president directly into the bloodstream of American public opinion. President Trump—a man known for his flair for exaggeration—now finds himself in deeper waters than usual. This time, it’s not about crowd sizes or building walls. This time, it’s about nuclear weapons, and the supposed “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear program following a recent U.S. military strike.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Trump claimed, boldly, confidently, and without a sliver of supporting evidence, that his recent strike on Iranian facilities “obliterated” their nuclear program. Not “damaged,” not “set back,” not even “crippled.” No, he used the word obliterated, as in completely destroyed. Nuked without the nuke. Mission Accomplished 2.0.

Except, of course, it wasn’t. According to numerous intelligence officials—some current, some former, and some too pissed off to stay silent—the claim is complete fiction. No nuclear facilities were destroyed. No weapons-grade enrichment capability was dismantled. And Iran’s ability to continue its program remains very much intact. Hell, they were probably back up and running before Trump could post his next incoherent Truth Social rant about dishwashers or Hannibal Lecter.

This wasn’t just a case of stretching the truth to win a news cycle. This was a bald-faced lie to the American people about a military operation involving a nuclear adversary. That’s not politics. That’s perjury in the court of public trust—and it ought to have real consequences.

But here’s the rub: in the Trump era, lying is not just tolerated—it’s institutionalized. It’s a governing philosophy. The lie becomes the policy, and the truth becomes a threat to national messaging. This is the kind of thing you’d expect from authoritarian regimes: a delusion pumped through the state media while the real story leaks out through anonymous sources and unnamed officials terrified of losing their jobs, their reputations, or their freedom.

Let’s break it down. If a president can lie about launching a successful strike against a hostile nuclear program—a claim with massive implications for diplomacy, deterrence, and global security—and walk away without scrutiny, what else can he lie about? Better yet, what else has he lied about? Ukraine? North Korea? COVID? The 2020 election? Take a number.

At some point, the lie metastasizes. It’s no longer about the words. It’s about the precedent. And the precedent Trump just set—again—is that the President of the United States can fabricate a major foreign policy victory, wave it around like a bloody flag, and move on without so much as a fact-check from his own party.

To be clear, this isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a constitutional crisis. When a president lies under oath, we call it perjury. When a president lies on Twitter—or Truth Social, apparently—we call it strategy. But what happens when that lie manipulates markets, deceives allies, emboldens enemies, and gaslights 330 million Americans into thinking we’ve solved a problem we’ve barely touched?

What happens when our enemies—who do read our intelligence leaks and do monitor our politics—realize the president is bluffing? What happens when a general in Tehran or Pyongyang or Beijing makes a decision based on the knowledge that the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military on earth is full of shit?

We’ve entered dangerous territory. Not because Trump is uniquely dishonest—though, to be fair, he is Olympic-level dishonest—but because no one is holding him accountable. Not the GOP, which has turned into a cult of personality so deeply brainwashed they’d believe Trump cured cancer if he said it while holding a Bible. Not the mainstream media, too distracted by the outrage-of-the-hour to follow up on the deeper implications. And certainly not Congress, which continues to sit on its hands, whining about decorum while the Constitution is being used as a bar mat at Mar-a-Lago.

The American people deserve better. We deserve truth—especially when it comes to national security. We deserve leaders who don’t confuse bravado with bravery, who don’t conflate performance with policy, and who understand that lying about nukes isn’t a punchline—it’s a prelude to disaster.

So here’s the question: What are the consequences of a presidential lie about nuclear war? Is it enough to expose it? Is it enough to mock it, meme it, bury it under 24 hours of breaking news? Or do we finally have the courage to say: enough.

Enough to the gaslighting. Enough to the cover-ups. Enough to a commander-in-chief who treats military operations like brand campaigns and foreign policy like a reality show.

If Trump wants to play pretend, fine. Let him do it from the stage of one of his dying rallies or in a padded room in Florida. But not from behind the Resolute Desk. Not with the codes. And sure as hell not with the truth.

Because when the president lies about nukes—and nobody blinks—it’s not just the truth that gets obliterated. It’s the very idea of trust in American leadership.

And that, my friends, is the most dangerous fallout of all.

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