Toward the end of Donald Trump’s remarks at a Kennedy Center board event on Monday, the president took a moment to congratulate himself on launching a war with Iran, while claiming to have received private validation from one of his White House predecessors.
According to the Republican incumbent, he recently spoke to “a certain” former president who allegedly told him, in reference to the military offensive in Iran, “I wish I did it. I wish I did.” Asked which former president made the comments, Trump replied, “I can’t tell you that. I don’t want to embarrass him. It would be very bad for his career, even though he’s got no career left.”
Hours later, in the Oval Office, he repeated the story, claiming that a former president told him, “I wish I did what you did.” (Trump specifically said it was not George W. Bush.)
To know anything about the way Trump communicates is to know that he often shares the details of conversations that have only occurred in his imagination, though he often publicly describes these chats as if they were real.
Does this latest anecdote fall into the same pattern? Apparently, yes: There are only four living former presidents, and with Bush removed from the equation, that leaves Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The Associated Press, NBC News and The New York Times separately reported, however, that none of the former presidents has spoken to Trump recently, suggesting that the Republican was once again describing a chat that never happened, just as he’s done too many times before.
Relatedly, the incumbent president boasted that there are countries that have responded to his call to assist the United States in the Strait of Hormuz, and that his administration would be “announcing them” soon. “I have to tell you, we have some that are really enthusiastic,” the Republican added. “They’re coming already. They’ve already started to get there.”
The comments were notable in part because of Trump’s increasing incoherence on the subject, having changed his mind several times about whether he wants, needs or expects other countries to provide assistance in the region. (At one point on Monday, he claimed that he’d only sought international support as part of some kind of test, “because I want to find out how they react.”)
But the comments also stood out because it was far from clear whether the countries he referred to actually exist: Officials from the U.K. and throughout Europe continued to express public skepticism about intervening in the region, with Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, saying, “This is not our war; we did not start it.”
Or, put another way, maybe there are “really enthusiastic” countries — which Trump refused to name, for reasons he did not explain — that are “coming already” to the Middle East, or maybe they’re as real as the conversation he had with a former American president who wishes he’d waged war in Iran.
In 2018, Bloomberg News published a memorable report that referred to Trump’s many “anonymous validators”: unnamed figures who were invariably important and powerful, who privately and habitually assured the president how right he was about his positions and priorities.
Eight year later, Trump continues to revel in the support of his many secret friends.
