{"id":205692,"date":"2026-03-28T22:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-draws-backlash-for-comment-on-iran-war-maybe-we-shouldnt-even-be-there-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:15:31","slug":"trump-draws-backlash-for-comment-on-iran-war-maybe-we-shouldnt-even-be-there-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-draws-backlash-for-comment-on-iran-war-maybe-we-shouldnt-even-be-there-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump draws backlash for comment on Iran war: \u2018Maybe we shouldn\u2019t even be there\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

President made contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with allies to help US secure strait of Hormuz
Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox<\/a>
Donald Trump<\/a> drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the strait of Hormuz were unnecessary \u2013 and that \u201cmaybe we shouldn\u2019t even be there at all\u201d because his country has plenty of oil of its own.
The president made the contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with European and Nato allies to enter the war<\/a> against Iran to help the US secure the strait amid the largest oil supply disruption<\/a> in history.
\u201cReally, I\u2019m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory \u2013 because it is their territory,\u201d he said.
\u201cThey should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn\u2019t even be there at all, because we don\u2019t need it. We have a lot of oil. We\u2019re the number one producer anywhere in the world times two.\u201d
Trump received criticism in the early stages of the US and Israel\u2019s three-week war in Iran for failing to convey<\/a> clear reasons for launching military strikes. He has made a number of antithetical statements since, including telling the UK, which he called a \u201conce great ally<\/a>\u201d, that its help was not needed in Operation Epic Fury.
His comment on Sunday was similarly questioned in an immediate backlash<\/a> on social media from critics who accused him of starting an unnecessary war \u2013 then demanding others step in to help him end it.
One post<\/a> referred to the families of the 13 US service members killed in the conflict as of Sunday \u2013 and how they might react to the president\u2019s \u201cshouldn\u2019t even be there\u201d suggestion.
The cousin of Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, one of six airmen killed when a US refueling tanker crashed last week, told Ohio ABC News affiliate WCMH<\/a> that family was experiencing \u201cthe worst nightmare we could ever imagine\u201d.
\u201cThis could have been prevented,\u201d Stephan Douglas said<\/a> in an interview before Trump made his Sunday night comments. \u201cWe didn\u2019t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for, and this is what we get.\u201d
Separately, an editor at the progressive outlet MeidasTouch reposted a reply to video of Trump\u2019s \u201cshouldn\u2019t even be there\u201d comment which read: \u201cSorry, what was that?\u201d
Trump was speaking on the same day as he reversed his earlier position over outside assistance and stepped up pressure on a raft of other countries to become involved in defending the strait.
Australia, France and Japan are among the countries that have said they have no plans to send warships. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said on Monday that he was working with European allies on \u201ca viable plan\u201d to reopen the strait \u2013 but insisted the country \u201cwill not be drawn into the wider war\u201d.
Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg\u2019s deputy prime minister, said his country would not give in to \u201cblackmail\u201d from the US.
During the gaggle with reporters on Sunday as the president returned to Washington from a weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, Trump suggested that the US effort to secure the strait was for the benefit of other countries.
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like we do it for habit, but we also do it for some very good allies that we have in the Middle East,\u201d he said.
Trump has said he was talking with a number of countries who he believed would help but did not identify them. In an earlier social media post, he said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others would participate.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday his tone was more menacing, warning that Nato faces a \u201cvery bad\u201d future<\/a> if it did not assist the US in protecting the strait from Iranian attacks.
He also told the newspaper that he \u201cmay delay\u201d traveling to a summit with Xi Jinping, the president of China, this week until he knew if China, an ally of Iran, would help.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President made contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with allies to help US secure strait of HormuzSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxDonald Trump drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the strait of Hormuz were unnecessary \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-205692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}