Trump’s Vanity War

A War Based on Lies and Corruption

Mar 06, 2026

a man walking down a dirt road between two buildings — Photo by Mahmoud Sulaiman on Unsplash

Let’s be clear: No one but no one advocates for or supports the cruel, tyrannical regime of Iran. But it’s also clear that Trump nor his administration have any interest in or regard for the well-being of Iran’s citizenry.

The invasion of Iran is:

Lawless,
Driven by Trump’s desire to distract from his own failures and troubles,
Driven by Trump’s desire to fill his own and his family’s bank accounts,
Making the US less safe.

Let’s take each of these in turn.

The invasion is lawless

Trump’s needless and unwarranted invasion is a direct act of lawlessness. The Constitution requires, in bold black and white, that Congress MUST be involved in any act of war against another nation. Trump has also clearly violated The sources indicate that the framework for declaring war and authorizing military force is fundamentally rooted in the U.S. Constitution to prevent unilateral executive overreach.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says that Congress alone, not the President, can declare war. Trump himself has referred to the offensive as a “war,” which triggers the constitutional requirement for Congress to either declare war. The founders specifically intended that starting a war by a President and his cronies would be prohibited. The Constitution is as clear as it can be on this point. What Trump and his administration has done is in direct contradiction to the Constitution..

The President can go to Congress to ask for an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). An AUMF allows the President to do some things without a declaration of war. When Congress passes an AUMF, it delegates a portion of its war powers to the executive branch. An AUMF is generally more targeted than a declaration of war. It allows the legislature to set specific parameters for military action, such as limiting the scope to specific terrorist groups or geographic regions. An AUMF also ensures the military has the necessary funding and transparency requirements in place. George W. Bush went to Congress to get an AUMF passed before the Iraq invasion.

The Trump administration did not ask Congress to pass an AUMF and congress has not passed such an authorization.

There is one way that a president can launch an attack on another country; it’s called the “imminent threat” exception. Under the War Powers Act, an administration can respond to such an emergency and then inform Congress within 24 hours. At that point, Congress can pass a resolution to continue or to stop military actions. Here’s the thing, though…US intelligence says that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States prior to the attacks.

So…Trump calls the invasion a “war” but only Congress can declare a war. Trump could have asked for Congress to pass an AUMF but he didn’t. He ordered a massive invasion without one. Trump says that he can invade Iran to thwart an “imminent threat”. Our own intelligence agencies tell us that there is no “imminent threat. It’s an illegal war on the face of it.

Distraction is the objective

A recent poll showed that more than half of America believes that Trump is “trying to cover up Epstein’s crimes.” That includes half of all moderates and more than half of independent voters. That’s a big problem for Trump and Republicans going into the mid-term elections.

And his troubles with the Epstein files are likely to get worse before they get better. There are allegations that Epstein was directly involved in selling Chinese weapons to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and that he engaged in money laundering as a part of these transactions.

So, it’s hard not to see the war against Iran as a calculated maneuver aimed at diverting attention away from the Epstein files.

The crooks start a war

The invasion is wrapped up in a huge, unprecedented tangle of conflicts of interest for Trump, his family, his top people, and the defense companies. It really looks like foreign countries and corporations are making a killing from this fight, and the military moves might be connected to the billions of dollars flowing into the Trump family’s pockets from overseas.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are threatened by Iran. Both nations have handed billions of dollars over to Trump, Jared Kushner, and Middle East envoy Steve Witcoff. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman invested $2 billion into Kushner’s private equity firm in 2021.

For its part, The UAE invested roughly $200 million into Kushner’s firm. Worse yet, a UAE official directed a $500 million investment into a cryptocurrency company co-owned by the Trump family. Of this money, $187 million went directly to Trump and $31 million went to Witkoff.

After making these payments and “investments”, both countries begged Kushner and Witcoff to use their influence with Trump to invade their fierce rival. The payoffs obviously worked.

Trump has already shown his willingness to repay these favors even when doing so hurts our country. He reversed restrictions and allowed the UAE to import 500,000 highly coveted Nvidia AI chips. A Democratic senator and ethics watchdogs classified this reversal as “corruption, plain and simple”.

Joe Biden approved restrictions on the export of top-tier AI chips. Trump and his cohorts removed those restrictions to allow sales of the chips if Nvidia and the UAE promised to keep a careful eye on things so that chips didn’t fall into China’s hands.

It didn’t work. Now, the most advanced chips are already showing up in China. That country is acquiring advanced AI technology that the Biden administration kept it from getting, which represents a significant setback for the U.S. effort to maintain a lead in the global AI race.

So, as they say in the movies, let’s “follow the money”:

The UAE writes big checks to Trump, Kushner, and Witcoff.
The UAE asks for access to powerful computer chips.
The UAE has close ties with China.
Trump removes the restrictions on the chips that the Biden administration put in place.
The chips end up in China.
Trump and Jared have their millions. China has our chips. The US lead in AI is eliminated.

Lastly, of course, we can always count on the war hawks to beat the drum for sending young men and women in harm’s way in the pursuit of the loot. For example, former Rep. Mike Gallagher and retired Gen. Jack Keane have repeatedly appeared on right wing television to push for further US military involvement.

Gallagher works for Palantir, a major defense contractor. Keane owns over 14,000 shares of defense contractor General Dynamics stock, which are valued at over $4 million.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: following the onset of the war, the market value of top Pentagon contractors like Northrop Grumman, RTX/Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, soared by billions of dollars. Nothing pleases stockholders like bombing another country does.

So, again, let’s follow the money:

Gallagher, Keane and other grifters beat the drum for bombing Iran.

Trump bombs Iran.
Gallagher, Keane and other grifters see their paychecks and stock portfolios go through the roof.
The companies who make the bombs and weapons see their stock prices go through the roof.
US families worry that their sons and daughters will die in Trump’s vanity war.

The invasion makes us less safe

We could write another article on this topic but let’s just look at how this invasion helps our two most powerful adversaries, Russia and China. Neither of those nations can believe their good fortune at the terrible strategic blunder this administration is carrying out. Both countries have worked for decades to undermine our position and our strength across the globe, which founded, almost entirely, on our relationships with and ties to other nations. When we went into Iraq, as ill-advised as that war was, we went with a coalition. We have effectively undone those ties and that goodwill that founded our military and economic strength across the globe. By alienating traditional allies, the U.S. is finding itself in one of the most isolated positions in modern history, effectively “doing the work of our adversaries and our competitors”.

We’ve all seen how the price of gas has jumped during the last few days. This is a direct result of the invasion as oil supplies drop significantly. You know this hurts our country. Do you know who it helps? Russia. Even with western sanctions and price caps, oil and gas contributes about 15% to 20% of its GDP, and accounts for 30% to 50% of its total budget revenues.

Lies, corruption, and danger

This foreign policy fiasco has resulted in a staggering strategic setback for the United States. It has severely damaged the international alliances that have been the bedrock of American power, isolating the U.S. in the process. It has provided a massive economic and geopolitical gift to our chief competitors, Russia and China. This self-inflicted wound has demonstrably reduced American strength while helping our adversaries.

The Iran invasion is a massive betrayal of what America once stood for. It’s a completely illegal war, kicked off without Congress’s okay and based on a transparently bogus “imminent threat” excuse. This military stunt isn’t about defending the country at all; it looks like a cynical political move—a way to distract from Trump’s problems at home and a quick way to make a buck. This war isn’t about national security; it’s a grubby cash grab, paid for with American lives.

Further, the invasion is a strategic failure. By cutting the U.S. off from its friends and, at the same time, giving a huge boost to our main rivals, Russia and China, Trump’s “vanity war” has done the exact opposite of what it claimed it would. It’s made the world more dangerous, chipped away at the foundation of American global power, and handed our enemies a massive advantage. The ultimate price tag for this mess—in blood, money, and permanent damage to global stability—will be paid by the American people long after the folks who cooked up this disaster have profited from their war-mongering.

(Full Disclosure: I wrote the article myself and used AI in its development and to assist with research and fact finding. I found the videos and articles via my own web searches. I had AI pick out the themes and main points of most of them. I used AI to query several of them to dig out information, details, and facts. )

Here is the list of the articles and videos used as sources for this article.

Videos (YouTube)