Can Anyone Tell the President to Stick to the Teleprompter?

By Noah Rothman

Thursday, March 26, 2026

 

It has been said so many times — and will be said again here, because it’s worth saying: The war against the Islamic Republic is a national project, and the American people need to be asked to support it.

 

Donald Trump has not solicited either the voting public’s backing for this war or that of their representatives in the legislature, and that’s a mistake. The president betrays a lack of trust in the American people, and the polls suggest they’re returning the favor.

 

This war has already demanded from them sacrifices for which they were unprepared. Trump’s powers of persuasion are vastly overestimated by those who apply little discretion to the president’s pronouncements, and most Americans may be immune to his exhortations. But a presidential attempt to meet American voters where they are on this war would be valuable.

 

It is not at all clear, however, that anyone in Trump’s orbit is willing to tell him that. Indeed, they seem as inclined as ever to flatter him, fluff his ego, and assure him that his instincts are never wrong.

 

“The president appears ready to shift to his next big challenge,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s reporting Thursday, citing a “person who spoke to him recently.” And yet, “Trump didn’t say what that might be.” Stay tuned, folks.

 

It’s not hard to believe that such a conversation took place — one in which Trump’s courtiers talk about him like he’s Daniel Day-Lewis, already festooned with accolades and languidly seeking his next inevitable triumph. That’s how Trump’s entourage talks about him in public, after all. Why would they drop the affect behind closed doors?

 

The Journal’s story purports to reveal the bombshell that Trump’s “attention has at times shifted to other topics” beyond the war in Iran, and that he’s eager to “bring the conflict to an end in the coming weeks.” None of that is difficult to believe, either.

 

Of course, the president is eager to wrap up a costly war on terms favorable to the United States with all due alacrity. What president wouldn’t be? Of course, “Trump told an associate that the war was distracting from his other priorities.” That’s what those in his ear are telling him on a regular basis, according to multiple media dispatches citing Republican lawmakers’ increasingly existential apprehension over the GOP’s declining electoral fortunes.

 

Republicans who balance national security concerns against public opinion have tried since the outset of this war to get Trump to recenter his attention on domestic issues that favor the GOP. They want him to talk more about their voter identification bill. They would like him to talk up his administration’s efforts to reduce consumer costs, particularly when it comes to energy expenses amid rising gasoline prices. They hope he’ll dwell on the inconvenience travelers are experiencing at airports amid the Democratic Party’s efforts to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

 

Those are all crucial political priorities for this president and his party. But this is wartime, and the commander in chief of the armed forces is presently prosecuting what will become his legacy achievement. Whether that legacy is desirable or lamentable hangs in the balance, as does America’s strategic position in the Middle East for the next generation. That is where his focus should be.

 

Instead of making up fake awards for the president so that he might feel accomplished, Trump’s flatterers would do well to convince him to level with the American people about the nature of this conflict and the commitments it will require of the nation and its citizens. And for the love of God, tell him to stick to the teleprompter.

 

War is serious business. The public-facing elements of this White House are not acting like serious people, the president included. That is contributing to voters’ apprehension, and their trepidation is showing up in the opinion surveys that are driving the GOP to distraction.

 

Instead of trying to harness the president’s attention deficit disorder and channel his manic energies toward their own parochial ends, those who truly want this administration to succeed should put their personal preferences aside. There’s a war on, after all. The midterms can wait.