Huh? Will Cain Digs Up Old Clips to Argue Trump Has ‘Stayed Consistent’ in Opposing Long Wars

Fox News’ Will Cain dug up some old clips to back up his claim that President Donald Trump has remained consistent in his opposition to foreign wars as he faces backlash, including among Republicans, over his Iran strikes.

On Tuesday’s The Will Cain Show, Cain acknowledged that there are “legitimate questions” being asked about foreign policy and war among “America First” conservatives who supported Trump based on his past criticism of regime change and drawn-out wars in the Middle East.

“America first. There’s a lot of conversation, much of it legitimate, about whether or not the current military operation in Iran serves America first,” Cain said. “There’s even accusations out there that President Trump has betrayed MAGA. But President Trump ran as an anti-war candidate, that’s true, and he has stayed consistent over time on avoiding unnecessary drawn-out wars.”

He cut to a clip of Trump from a February 2016 presidential debate where he railed against the Iraq War.

“You see, he warned about Iraq. He blasted forever wars. He even told [former Vice President] Kamala Harris to her face that the Biden administration failed on Afghanistan,” Cain said.

The Fox host argued that Trump has also been consistent on Iran being a threat while also arguing against drawn-out wars in the Middle East.

“As you saw, President Trump has also never been afraid to call out the Iranian threat. He posted back in 2011, Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped by any and all means necessary,” Cain said.

He further argued Trump’s opposition to regime change and wars has earned him the “benefit of the doubt” amid the current strikes against Iran. Notably, Trump has long been opposed to regime change and regularly attacked ex-President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for supporting regime change in Libya, Egypt, and other countries.

“Libya was stable; Syria was under control; Egypt was ruled by a secular ally of the United States. Iraq was experiencing a reduction of violence and Iran was being choked off by economic sanctions,” Trump said in 2016 while running for president the first time, adding, “Libya is in ruins; Syria is in the midst of a disastrous civil war; in Egypt terrorists have gained a foothold in the Sinai desert; Iraq is in chaos and ISIS is on the loose.”

Cain took Trump’s shifting position on regime change as a positive, however, arguing, “They have earned that benefit of doubt from the previous positions they’ve held on forever wars and [being] crystal clear that peace only comes through strength.”

He then played a clip of Trump during a 2024 campaign stop promising to end the “chaos” in the Middle East and prevent World War III.

The U.S. and Israel strikes against Iran have led to the deaths of numerous high-ranking government officials, including the country’s supreme leader. Trump has pushed for the Iranian people to overthrow their current government, leading many conservative and even MAGA critics to question whether the president has flip-flopped on supporting regime change and long wars in the Middle East.

“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built,” the president said in 2025 in Saudi Arabia. He blasted “interventionists” who had intervened in “complex societies that they did not even understand.”

Those words echoed a position that Trump has long held, but has only recently been brought into question by some of his more anti-war supporters.

“We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria,” Trump said at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

He was also plenty critical of former President Barack Obama on Iran, predicting multiple times that the then-president would attack the country because he was not a strong enough negotiator.

“Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly—not skilled!” he wrote in 2013.

He also predicted in 2024 that Harris would “invade” the Middle East should she become president. During that same presidential race, Trump told a crowd, “I can tell you you’re not going to have a war with Iran with me as president.”

Trump has predicted the current Iran operation will take four to five weeks, but he’s also warned that “we have capability to go far longer than that.” Trump has also left open the possibility of deploying U.S. troops into Iran, despite long opposing U.S. boots on the ground in foreign wars.

Watch above via Fox News.

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