David Ignatius Says Trump Reopened War With Iran on February 28
David Ignatius argues that President Donald Trump reopened war against Iran on February 28 after U.S. and Israeli air strikes had badly damaged Iran’s nuclear program in June 2025. Trump said he wanted to ensure that Iran never developed a nuclear weapon, even as the damage from the 12 days of bombardment remained controversial.
Trump had already promised the Iranian people on January 13, “Help is on the way.” By August 2025, he insisted that he had effectively prevented Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, and he later started the February 28 war for reasons the article ties to personality rather than strategy.
June 2025 Strikes on Iran
In June 2025, U.S. and Israeli air strikes badly damaged the Iranian nuclear program in 12 days of bombardment. The article says the extent of the damage remained controversial, which left Trump’s later claim to have blocked a nuclear weapon standing on disputed ground rather than on settled assessment.
That dispute sits at the center of the story for readers tracking what comes next. If the program was set back sharply, the next round of military pressure still had to answer the same question: whether force could produce a deal or only another cycle of escalation.
Trump and the Iranian Regime
During the 2026 military operations, Trump sought a deal with the existing regime and made no effort to support or cooperate with Iranian dissidents before, during, or after the uprising. The article says the rebellion against Iran’s brutal oppressors was already effectively crushed before military operations commenced, and thousands were dead by the time the operations began.
That sequence matters because Trump was not entering a fresh uprising; he was trying to negotiate while the battlefield and the political moment had already moved on. The article also describes Trump as arrogant, reckless, not a plan-ahead guy, and someone who hates procedure, framing the war as a product of personality rather than a long-thought-out campaign.
January 13 and February 28
Trump’s January 13 promise, “Help is on the way,” came before the February 28 war and before the later claim in August that he had effectively prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The article places him in a line of presidents from Jimmy Carter through Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden who did not wage a major war against Iranian national territory, with the Strait of Hormuz cited as one of the deterrents for earlier presidents.
For readers trying to follow the next step, the immediate issue is not whether Trump declared victory in August, but whether the war he resumed on February 28 can be squared with the unresolved dispute over the June damage. That is the open question left by the timeline the article lays out.
