In a 2007 video, retired General Wesley Clark described the moment, in the early days of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, where he learned of a Department of Defense agenda flagging seven Middle Eastern countries for destruction. Beginning with Iraq, it would proceed to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. This plan, idiomatic of the Washington establishment, is exactly what MAGA was supposed to counter, yet today we see President Donald Trump overseeing its finale and selling it whole-heartedly to his base.
This administration understands it takes careful messaging to convince voters that war is necessary. Like the George W. Bush administration, they have stressed the existence of WMDs, and like that precedent, the Israeli government is a co-conspirator. But a third aspect of Trump’s war propaganda is especially surprising. He portrays these operations as a way of maintaining U.S. dominance throughout the world and uphoplding the global order. To many Trump voters, this goal should be confusing. Weren’t the aims of MAGA to retreat from international commitments?
In his first term, Donald Trump called out the supposed culprits behind America’s stagnation. He derided the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and NATO, asserting that our commitments to induce free trade and pay for international defense held us back. He dealt harshly with NATO members in full view of the media, aspired to remove the illegal labor that made a mockery of unions, replaced NAFTA with USMCA, and ordered tariffs on Chinese imports to give our industries leverage. MAGA included a transition from financialization to productivity, a reduction of debts, and a manufacturing policy that would lead, we were told, to an American trade surplus. There should be no question that war reverses any progress we’ve made in these areas. It creates dilemmas which can only be handled by Washington’s bureaucracy, and must be financed by the same institutions that naturally orient America to global relationships.
Nevertheless, Trump’s base is extremely supportive of this war with Iran and makes the case that foreign intervention is, in fact, central to the MAGA movement. They point to Trump’s past vows never to let Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and it is well-known that the president consistently advocates for military supremacy. While building up our arsenal, he simultaneously prepped us for a confrontation with Iran by taking us out of the JCPOA and choking the Iranian regime with sanctions. This has indirectly provoked unrest in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Most symbolically of all, Trump renamed the Department of Defense to the “Department of War” in September 2025. It all suggests a slow indoctrination towards our current militant spirit, and that we are still firmly in the grips of the plot exposed by General Clark. We find ourselves following Trump, as if intoxicated, back to the crusading America of 2001.
While factions of the MAGA movement debate President Trump’s motivations, it is apparent that any reformation that would return labor to its place at the bargaining table is now out of reach. In a recent interview on Meet the Press, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent downplays the cost of the war and seemed annoyed when asked about the anticipated budget increases and rising oil prices. Bessent, a former currency speculator, knows that debt is a weapon for America, not a liability, and he also knows that this financial power, built on faith in the U.S. government, can only be effective if our military exerts itself globally. Bessent, like Trump, is a dedicated member of the establishment and must therefore defend the financial system at all costs.
Many sober economists have warned that returning America to its industrial heyday can’t realistically happen without causing a recession. In all likelihood, Trump has known this from the beginning and now hopes war will convince everyone that the system, as frustrating and corrupt as it is, exists to keep us safe from terror. Or as Scott Bessent put it, “there is no prosperity without security.”
