Since the launch of the U.S. war in Iran, there’s been one number that Republicans have used more than any other. Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, for example, used it Friday morning during an appearance on Newsmax.
Donald Trump “is ending a 47-year war with Iran,” the far-right congressman said.
His party’s recent emphasis on the number has been about as subtle as a sledgehammer. The day before Perry’s comments, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN, “We’re less than two weeks into this 47-year-long conflict.” That came on the heels of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz also claiming that the American president is “ending a 47-year war.”
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has echoed the claim in recent days, as has Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. A seemingly endless stream of GOP House members have pushed the same line, as have some conservative media figures.
Republican Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, tried to peddle the same talking point on Fox News, but he apparently got tripped up and instead said, “We have been at war with Iran since 1947.”
The point, however, was effectively the same: GOP officials allied with the White House want the American public to believe that the war in Iran started in February 1979, not February 2026.
The argument certainly has an Orwellian “we have always been at war with Eurasia” quality, but it’s a tough sell.
The obvious problem is that the talking point isn’t true. While Iran has certainly been an enemy of the U.S. since its revolution in the late 1970s, the idea that there has been an ongoing war for nearly a half-century would probably come as a surprise to most Americans, who likely realize there’s been no such military conflict.
Indeed, the underlying idea is rather silly. The Iran-Contra scandal unfolded in the 1980s, for example, and I have a hunch Republicans would be reluctant to argue that the Reagan administration sold arms to a country the U.S. was at war with.
Relatedly, in June 2019, Trump declared that if Iran were willing to forgo a nuclear weapons program, “they are going to have a wealthy country, they’re going to be so happy, and I’m going to be their best friend.” Why would the Republican president offer to be best friends with a country during its war with the U.S.?
But making matters worse is the motivation behind the lazy talking point. Trump and his political operation invested a lot of time and effort telling voters that he’d keep the country out of new wars, especially in the Middle East, only to do the opposite 14 months into his second term.
Republican officials are peddling this “47 years” claim as a tacit defense, as if Trump hadn’t launched the war and Iran did. But if the party expects anyone to take the argument seriously, it’s likely to be disappointed.
