Trump Says the War Is “Very Complete," But Also Just "Beginning"

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bulwark Takes

Episode: "Trump Says the War Is “Very Complete," But Also Just 'Beginning'"

Date: March 10, 2026
Host: Sam Stein (Managing Editor, The Bulwark)
Guest: Sarah Longwell (Publisher, The Bulwark)

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Overview of Main Theme

In this episode, Sam Stein and Sarah Longwell react in real time to Donald Trump’s recent press conference on the ongoing war with Iran. The discussion centers on Trump’s confusing and contradictory messaging about the state of the conflict—declaring both victory and the onset of a new phase—while unpacking the implications for U.S. military policy, humanitarian consequences, and presidential leadership. The conversation also explores Trump’s lack of expressed empathy regarding military and civilian casualties, the political impact on his supporters, and the dangers of performative wartime declarations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Mixed Messaging from Trump on the War’s Status

• Initial Reaction and Audio Clip

  • Trump simultaneously suggests that the U.S. military mission is accomplished and that “the mission’s just getting started.”

  • Quote:

    • Trump: “Well, I think you could say it’s both the beginning...of building a new country. But they certainly—they have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti-aircraft equipment...We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here. I could call it. Or we could go further. And we're going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out in the first two days.” [02:01]

  • Analysis:

    • Sam Stein points out that Trump wants the “mission accomplished” headlines, while still leaving the door open for escalation.
    • Sarah Longwell argues:
      • “The part that was accomplished was we bombed them, we killed a lot of people. That’s the part Trump likes. The big things go boom.” [02:51]
      • Trump is more interested in the optics of victory than the facts on the ground.

2. Regime Change Ambitions and the “Venezuela Model”

• Trump hints at supporting an internal regime change in Iran, referencing the Venezuela scenario:
  • Sam Stein: “He was very explicit. That's what he wants. Problem is, he's killed them all. I mean, they were killed in the first strike...Also, the other problem is the Iranians have a vote, right?” [05:15]
  • Sarah Longwell: “Also, Delsy was just the vice president of Venezuela. Like, she's not different in any way other than he feels like she owes him one and has more of a hand to play with her than he did with Maduro.” [06:26]
• The hosts note Trump’s disregard for the complexities of regime change and the unique sociopolitical context of Iran.

3. Trump’s Attitude Toward Military Deaths

• Reporter’s Question: “As of today, there have been eight US Military fatalities...How many American deaths are you willing to have in this war?” [08:25]

  • Trump responds: “When you have conflicts like this, you always have death. And I was at Dover yesterday. I met the parents...they all had one thing in common...Finish the job, sir, please finish the job.” [08:35]

• Critical Commentary:

  • Sarah Longwell: “Trump lacks that thing that I think almost all other presidents have had...is that they take the deaths of Americans...onto their hearts...his contempt for the American people is boundless.” [09:16]
  • Both Stein and Longwell underscore Trump's lack of visible empathy or personal burden over ordering actions that cost American lives, contrasting him with past presidents and highlighting why this is dangerous in a wartime president.

4. Civilian Casualties and the Elementary School Incident

• Reports surface that a U.S. strike killed 175 people at a girls’ elementary school in Iran.

  • Pressed by Reporters: Trump repeatedly denies U.S. involvement, blaming Iranian “inaccuracy.”

    • Trump: “We think it was done by Iran because they're very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions...Tomahawks are, are used by others...whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.” [11:49, 12:37]

  • Pushback:

    • Reporter challenges Trump for being the only official making this claim, noting even his own Defense Secretary won't back up his story.
    • Sam Stein notes Trump’s total shift in explanation, saying, “Diametrically different than where he was a day ago. And kudos to the reporter...You have to pin him down and just say you sound totally absurd and you're saying things that no one else is saying.” [12:56]

  • Sarah Longwell: “Any other president would have thought, okay, we missed our target. We murdered a bunch of children...This is when you do a war, you have to approach it with the gravity of... I am making choices that result in the loss of lives, many of them innocent people. And so, like, take responsibility for that. That's the leadership. That's what commanders in chief do.” [13:17]

5. Empathy Gap and the Political Response

• Larger Moral Issue:

  • Sam Stein: “You would want someone who would say, war’s horrible and we bemoan every loss of life, we cherish life and this is a tragedy and we're looking into it and we promise we're going to get to the bottom of it. But he doesn't have that in him.” [14:27]

• Why Doesn’t Empathy Matter to Trump’s Base?

  • Sarah Longwell: “For a lot of people, they see this as Trump being authentically himself. And after...many politicians participating in an artifice...they don't believe those politicians. And so, so they're like willing to be like, well, Trump doesn't really care. And so see, that's him being authentic.” [15:45]
  • Longwell points to an authenticity paradox: the very lack of empathy is taken as honesty, though she insists politicians should never imitate this aspect of Trump’s persona.

6. Skepticism Among Trump Voters

• Sarah Longwell: “I am hearing in the focus groups a tremendous amount of skepticism from Trump voters about this war. And so the longer it goes on and the more loss of American lives, it'll be less about exactly how Trump reacts to them and more about where is Trump taking us...” [17:46]
• Suggests potential political vulnerability as U.S. casualties mount.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mission Accomplished All Over Again
  • Sarah Longwell: “Somebody get that man, an aircraft carrier to stand on and say, heck of a job, Brownie. Mission accomplished.” [02:51]
• On Trump’s Handling of Death
  • Sarah Longwell: “He doesn’t have that thing where he sort of takes on the horror of it...” [09:16]
• On Presidential Responsibility
  • Sarah Longwell: “When you do a war, you have to approach it with the gravity of...resulting in the loss of lives, many of them innocent people. And so, like, take responsibility for that. That's the leadership.” [13:17]
• On Empathy and Authenticity
  • Sarah Longwell: “Just because this is how Donald Trump behaves and it seems to be condoned by a lot of people, we should never imitate that...” [16:35]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:00] – Episode begins; Trump press conference context set.
• [02:01] – Trump’s “both the beginning and very complete” war comments.
• [04:04] – Trump’s statement on the potential occupation of the Strait of Hormuz.
• [05:15] – Trump’s regime change rhetoric and “Venezuela model.”
• [08:25] – Discussion of U.S. military fatalities, Trump’s response.
• [11:26] / [12:21] – Press pushback on civilian casualties and the elementary school bombing.
• [13:17] – Reflection on presidential responsibility for collateral damage.
• [15:45] – Why Trump’s lack of empathy is seen as a strength by some supporters.
• [17:46] – Focus group insights: Trump voters and war skepticism.

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Tone and Takeaways

The episode is marked by a tone of incredulity, sharp critique, and concern about the gravity of presidential decisions in war. Sam and Sarah lay bare the contradictions, moral deficiencies, and performative aspects of Trump’s rhetoric, while underscoring the real-world stakes for both American service members and foreign civilians. Central to their analysis is an insistence that leadership requires both honesty about the costs and empathy for the human toll of military action—qualities they argue Trump demonstrably lacks.

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Summary for the Uninitiated

If you missed Trump’s press conference or coverage of the ongoing Iran war, this episode of Bulwark Takes delivers a blunt, real-time breakdown of Trump’s attempts to have it both ways: declaring victory while signaling a willingness for further escalation and regime change. Sam Stein and Sarah Longwell call out the deep dangers of such cavalier messaging, Trump’s refusal to personally shoulder the responsibility for loss of life, and the cultural/political reasons his base isn’t bothered by his lack of empathy—while warning that the costs of his approach are already mounting for both Americans and the wider world.

Transcript

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[Sam Stein]

Hey everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bulwark. And I'm joined by our fearless publisher and new author, Sarah Longwell. Buy her book. I'm just getting into it. We are here right after Donald Trump finished a press conference Monday afternoon. When we're recording this, we're literally minutes from him finishing up and Sarah hasn't seen it. I did see it. Well, I lie. I was listening to it on the way home from work. I listened to it at least and we want to talk about it. So, Sarah, you're coming in cold, but I'll just say for me and we'll play this clip first. The big standout is just the mixed messaging around the war that's happening right now where you have the depend Department of Defense, I refuse to call it Department of War, saying, ah, the mission's just getting started. Then you have Donald Trump telling reporters, in essence, we've basically done the job and it's pretty close to over without being, you know, specific about how much longer there is. So let's play the clip of him saying that and then you and I can talk about it.

[Sarah Longwell]

On the flip side, Mr. President, you've said the war is, quote, very complete. But your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. So which is it and how long should Americans be prepared for?

[Donald Trump]

Well, I think you could say it both the beginning, it's the beginning of building a new country. But they certainly, they have no navy, they have no air force, they have no anti aircraft equipment. It's all been blown up. They have no radar, they have no telecommunications and they have no leadership. It's all gone. So, you know, you could look at that statement. We could. We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here. I could call it. Or we could go further. And we're going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out the first in the first two days.

[Sam Stein]

All right, there you have it.

[Sarah Longwell]

It's mission accomplished.

[Sam Stein]

Mission accomplished or mission just begun.

[Donald Trump]

We don't know.

[Sarah Longwell]

Somebody get that man, an aircraft carrier to stand on and say, heck of a job, Brownie. Mission accomplished. So the thing is. Okay, wait, you say that's mixed messages. I actually think it was pretty clear. The part that was accomplished was we bombed them, we killed a lot of people. That's the part Trump likes. The big things go boom. And. And so he's like. And so we could walk away, but we're not. We're going to keep going. And I'm pretty sure, do regime change. Like, I pretty.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, that pretty much clear.

[Sarah Longwell]

Right.

[Sam Stein]

And so we're not even. We're not even dancing around that at this point. We're doing regime change.

[Sarah Longwell]

Right. And so that, that, to me, I guess it's not mixed messages. It's just him trying to. He wants to do the declaring of victory. He can't help himself. But there was nothing. And it was interesting, I saw, because he gave a little statement to some reporter earlier today, maybe it was the Wall Street Journal suggesting this, like, oh, it's over, and the markets rallied or whatever. But, like, he doesn't have any idea what's happening. He's. He just like, he wants to say, yes, we did the big bombing and now, now we're like, it's like, he doesn't know that. Now is the hard part. Now is the part that's tough.

[Sam Stein]

He gave the statement around, like, 3:34 o', clock, so a couple hours in advance of this press conference, right when the markets are about to close, he said, well, we're pretty much done. And of course, naturally, the markets rallied. They were thrilled by the news. But what was telling was that in that same statement, I forget who the reporter was. I think it was cbs, actually. He also was like, well, we might take over the Strait of Hormuz. And it's like, I guess we're not done. Like, are we going to actually take over, uh, this, uh, important waterway in, in the Middle East? And what does that mean? And wouldn't that make us vulnerable to attack? And wouldn't that require boots on the ground? Like, we're clearly not done. It's just to Your point? He wants all the, the headlines. This is, this is for, this is that that's what he cares about.

[Sarah Longwell]

I do think the market thought potentially that it was the Trump Taco. Trump is going to, he's going to go in, he's going to do his smash and grab job and he's. And, and we're out. I. Either that or the markets become really untethered to reality, as untethered as Donald Trump is to reality. But there's, there's no way to do what he has done at this point. I mean, did he address in this conference? I, I didn't see it. So I'm, I'm just here to react to the clips. But like, sure. Did he, did he react to the fact that it's Khomeini's son? Like, we just have another Khomeini. What did he say to that?

[Sam Stein]

So there was. So this, the backstory here is that there's been a couple bits of reporting, including from the Wall Street Journal, fairly gruesome, actually, that he's like, you know, basically the United States is planning to kill the sun too, or it's not ruling out killing the sun too. And he was asked at various points at the press conference, like, how can you tolerate the, the Ayatollah son just taking over and would that be acceptable to you? And he's like, I'm not happy about it. And he made it clear that he didn't want to talk about what kind of remedy he would have. I laugh because it's so dark. At the same time, he said, I want someone internally to take over in Iran because I don't want. And he used the Iraq model. He said, I want to disband all these institutions, including the politicians. What really works is the Venezuela model. This is what he said. And he said, we have Delsey in Venezuela. She's doing great. She's given us 100 billion, million barrels of oil. We're loving it. I want that. He was very explicit. That's what he wants. Promise he's killed them all. I mean, they were killed in the first strike. And so he's got nothing to go on here. Also, the other problem is the Iranians have a vote, right? At least they have some sort of stake in the matter. So I don't see how this works out. But maybe he's got a different idea.

[Sarah Longwell]

Also, Delsy was just the vice president of Venezuela. Like, she's not different in any way other than he feels like she owes him one and has more of like a hand to play with her than he did with Maduro.

[Sam Stein]

Right.

[Sarah Longwell]

Like, I don't think it's made anything better for the Venezuelans. No. So whatever. I. That. I mean, I don't know what to do about that. But also, like, how do you do that model in Iran? You don't. That's not a thing you can do. It does speak to how much I think, look, he gets his head turned by the discipline and the force of the American military. Right. Like, it is a great and, you know, lethal institution. And so I think he does because he's. He's governed otherwise. I sort of said this on Tim's podcast, you know, know, otherwise he's got clowns all around him, right, who can't do the things that he wants to do, but the American military can. And so he watched what happened in Venezuela and thought, like, okay, now I can just go do that in Iran. But it really does. It's like. It's like learning absolutely nothing from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also coming from a guy who spent the last 10 years talking about how stupid they all were for everything they did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Sam Stein]

Well, I also. I think the Venezuela thing kind of clouded his judgment a little bit.

[Sarah Longwell]

Right.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, it went better than expected. He assumed you can apply to every. Every other country. He also talked openly about, basically, Cuba's next. You know, he had his whole easy way, the hard way they're going to come next. So he clearly is in this place where he thinks he's just sort of like playing a game of risk, Right. And it's just right, whatever country he wants next. But, you know, that's just not how it works. And unfortunately, there's now seven dead service members. And we actually was asked about that. The reporter asked him. I think the reporter said 8. I'm not totally sure where it came from, to be honest. I was working off of seven. Put that aside. Let's. Can we play the clip of how we responded to that?

[Sarah Longwell]

As of today, there have been eight US Military fatalities associated with the war in Iran. How many American deaths are you willing to have in this war?

[Donald Trump]

Well, as I said before, when you have conflicts like this, you always have death. And I was at Dover yesterday. I met the parents, and they were unbelievable people. They were unbelievable people. But they all had one thing in common. They said to me, one thing, every single one. Finish the job, sir, please finish the job. And I'll leave you at that.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I don't know if they said that, but also, there wasn't much of in the way of like, you know, mourning in that statement from him. So I don't know. He processes stuff differently than I do, but it's clear that he's not really that much moved by it and he feels like it's a game of risk.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yeah. I mean, again, at the risk of repeating something I said elsewhere, but I was on poll the other day and I got all worked out.

[Sam Stein]

You're just all over. You're all over the place. This is too much.

[Sarah Longwell]

Yeah, but the thing, this is the part that actually really frustrates me about Trump, or not. It frustrates, isn't even. Isn't strong enough of a word. Trump lacks that thing that I think almost all other presidents have had, good or bad, their policies, one way or the other, is that they take the deaths of Americans that they cause by their actions onto their hearts. Right. Like you, you could just tell that it every single one of them feels the burden of the lives that are sort of in their hands. And it is infuriating, enraging, and just gross. But such a way that Trump is right, his contempt for the American people is boundless. And he doesn't have that thing where he sort of takes on the horror of it in a way that, because it is one thing to say these things happen in war and every death is a tragedy. And like, you can tell when somebody it causes keeps them up at night the idea that their direct actions will end the lives of young men and women who've decided to serve. And it is true that it is a reality. But you want a president to not be cavalier about it. Right? To sort of hold every life as valuable so that they don't make wanton decisions and just throw lives away. And he doesn't have that. And I think that is what makes him a scary figure in a war situation.

[Sam Stein]

Well, that's the other. So that's the other you're talking about the morality of it and the empathy and the other sort of real pressure point around that is what happened on the first days of the operation, the war with respect to this school, this elementary school for girls that's apparently near this base in Iran. Multiple articles and reports have come in and video evidence suggesting that we were responsible for it. And Donald Trump has been asked about this repeatedly. He was on the plane yesterday and he said, no, it was Iran, not us.

[Reporter]

Mr. President, did the United States bomb a girl's elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people based on what

[Donald Trump]

I've seen that was done by Iran.

[Reporter]

Is that true, Mr. Hexa? It was Iran who did that.

[Sam Stein]

We're certainly investigating, but the only, the only side that targets civilians is Iran.

[Donald Trump]

We think it was done, we think it was done by Iran because they're very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran and today

[Sam Stein]

he was pressed on it one, not once but twice. And the second time, kudos to the reporter who was like, hey movie, let's play the clip and we can talk about this afterwards. Because there was finally this moment where Trump sort of gets brushed back, which happens so rarely in a press conference. And you can see that he actually can't turn to his pre spin and this is what happens.

[Reporter]

You just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your Defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?

[Donald Trump]

Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are, are used by others. As you know, numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.

[Sam Stein]

I mean diametrically different than where he was a day ago. And kudos to the reporter. I forget who it was, but that was a follow up question and that's what you have to do. You have to pin him down and just say you sound totally absurd and you're saying things that no one else is saying.

[Sarah Longwell]

A couple of things. One, other countries may have Tomahawks. Are any, were any of them bombing Iran with.

[Sam Stein]

No, it doesn't make sense.

[Sarah Longwell]

So that's 1, 2. When he's just like, I don't know, like that. This is what I mean. Any other president would have thought, okay, we, we missed our target. We, we murdered a bunch of children. And like you can say that is sad, like it is, it is bad that we did that. Here's what we did. Like you take that. This is what the, this is. When you do a war, you have to approach it with the gravity of, I recognize that I am making choices that results in the loss of lives, many of them innocent people. And so like take responsibility for that. That's the leadership. That's what commanders in chief do. And he Just doesn't do that. He just like denies that it happens and that, that offends sort of everyone's sacrifice in, in these types of things. Just say that you're sorry, like say that you're sorry for that or say that it's, it's horrible. But like, but also the way he's just like, well, I don't know, it's like, it's like when they call Alex Preddy or Renee Good domestic terrorists, it's like they don't care if they're smearing people, they don't care if it's true. Like they have no fidelity to the truth, no interest in it.

[Donald Trump]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

In a way him saying, I don't know, after having already said that he believes it was the Iranians is worse. Right. Because basically what he's essentially saying is, you know, what, what I said yesterday when I was, you know, with conviction, insist it was the Iranians, that was a lie. I actually don't know. I mean, just basically cop to it. And to your point, you know, it's so, it's devoid of any sort of moral clarity or sense of responsibility that you would think you would want in that moment from someone who's ordering real life and death decisions, not just for Americans, but for Iranians and everyone else. You would want someone who would say, war's horrible and we bemoan every loss of life, we cherish life and this is a tragedy and we're looking into it and we promise we're going to get to the bottom of it. But he doesn't have that in him. And I guess my closing question to you, because you talk to these people, it's part of your book, it's the essence of your book. But like, that doesn't seem to bother a lot of folks. I mean, I guess half the country or so, like, they don't care about having a politician in the Oval Office who has a sense of empathy. They don't care about a defense Secretary who, you know, doesn't talk about lethality and can actually talk about like, the consequences of why doesn't it matter more? Why do they, why are they attracted to that?

[Sarah Longwell]

Yeah, I mean, look, I, I, I still can't, I can explain like the, what, the fact that a lot of, for a lot of people, they see this as Trump being authentically himself. And after, after, like in their minds, many politicians participating in an artifice, like what they would see as an artifice of, of that empathy, like, they don't believe those politicians. And so, so they're like willing to be like, well, Trump doesn't really care. And so see, that's him being authentic. But I gotta say that the, that may be the reason. So, like, I could explain it, but I want to say, like, as a moral matter, the reason that it's wrong is that there's a lot of ways in which I think politics is going to have to change to meet the new moment and, and be in a different communications environment. And that is what the book is about.

[Sam Stein]

You should tell people what the book is.

[Sarah Longwell]

The title, how to Eat an Elephant, one voter at a time. But I will say this is part of the book is, is this essential point, which is just because this is how Donald Trump behaves and it seems to be condoned by a lot of people. We should never imitate that and we should never, ever. There are a lot of ways that, like I said, politicians, I think, can try to be more human, but this is one of those times where actually it's not the artifice of the job. This is when you need a president to be human. You need them to both have. You want them to be steely spined, which is, I think, how people sort of interpret Trump. Right. If, if the mission is righteous and we can, that is a different debate. But like, if you think the mission is righteous, if you think it's worth costing American treasure time and lives, okay. But then like, you own it morally and you take it seriously as a human for the loss of life. And I think that that is where I can under or I, I know why voters respond to him the way they do. Although I gotta say, also, I don't think we know yet how this is really going to turn out. Like, I am hearing in the focus groups a tremendous amount of skepticism from Trump voters about this war. And so the longer it goes on and the more loss of American lives, it'll be less about exactly how Trump reacts to them and more about where is Trump taking us and how, and how is that impacting Americans?

[Sam Stein]

Well, good news, it's over. Trump said it was over today, so to worry about that also. We're going to be there for a while, but it's over. But we might take over the straight of moose, but it's over. All right, Sarah, thanks so much. Everyone should go out and get the ball. It's not out yet, but pre order the, pre order it, pre order that

[Sarah Longwell]

and then we'll stop plugging it. After every last one of you have pre ordered it, we'll stop plugging it

[Sam Stein]

once every book is bought, we will stop plugging it. All right, Sarah, thank you for doing this. I know it was late, know you hadn't watched it, but I appreciate you coming on and talking about it. For those who did watch us, please subscribe to the Bulwark for great takes like this. Thank you for your support. We love you. Subscribe. Take care. We'll talk to you later.

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