The principal problem for Trump is that we know exactly what he “set out to accomplish,” because he laid out his objectives in plain terms when launching the war on Feb. 28. Indeed, the president told the world that he had five objectives, starting with a specific goal: “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.”

Roughly 109 days later, Trump took the opposite position, arguing that “it’s a little bit unfair” for Iran not to have ballistic missiles because other countries in the region, including U.S.-allied Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are believed to have stockpiles of the weaponry.

Trump says that Iran "has to have" ballistic missiles, adding "what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles but they can't have them?"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-17T16:27:06.408Z

.....Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, said on March 2 that eliminating Iran’s missiles was a “clear objective of this mission.” Two days later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said, “The mission is laser-focused: obliterate Iran’s missiles and drones and facilities that produce them.” The same day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said destroying Iran’s missiles was the “No. 1” objective of the war.

Three months later, Trump didn’t just abandon this goal; he effectively derided it as unreasonable....

Yet it’s not just missiles. Trump also spent the better part of a decade condemning the idea of allowing Iran to access its own frozen funds. At his G7 press conference, he abandoned this position, too.

Trump on Iran: "The unfreezing -- we have taken a lot of their money. It's not our money. At a certain point in time, I guess we're gonna have to give it back."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-17T16:49:49.013Z

“We have taken a lot of their money, and we have their money,” he said, referring to Iranians. “We have taken their money — it’s not our money, it’s their money — and we froze it at a certain point in time. I guess we’re going to have to give it back, you know.”....

Taken together, the Republican president’s claim that the framework “achieves everything we set out to accomplish — everything and much more” wasn’t just demonstrably false; it was also one of the most pitiful lies of his political career.