GOP Senate Conference Chair Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) is being criticized for defending President Trump’s handling of the war against Iran by comparing the current conflict with General Eisenhower’s progress on the World War II battlefields.
[NOTE: 21st century American quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Trump’s own varying accounts of current U.S. progress against Iran — the President has said both that the war is nearly “complete” and that the U.S. is only starting to inflict maximum damage — has led Trump supporters like Cotton to have to field questions about what constitutes progress and/or victory in Iran.]
Cotton said this week: “Anyone who says we’re already losing or in a quagmire or the president can’t succeed is akin to saying Eisenhower was losing because he hadn’t made it to Berlin within two weeks of D Day. It’s going to take some time.”
Not for nothing, but Eisenhower spent months planning for D-Day, had prepared for as many contingencies as possible, and then after all that, was prepared to take personal responsibility for failure.#Iran is nothing like that, @TomCottonAR https://t.co/zeRNg4MsUl
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) March 17, 2026
Reed Galen, a conservative co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, who served the President George W. Bush administration at both the Treasury and Homeland Security Departments, replied: “Not for nothing, but Eisenhower spent months planning for D-Day, had prepared for as many contingencies as possible, and then after all that, was prepared to take personal responsibility for failure. #Iran is nothing like that, @TomCottonAR.”
While Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have said that they are prepared for myriad contingencies in Iran, Trump raised eyebrows this week when he said during live press conferences that “nobody expected” Iran would attack its neighboring Gulf Arab states in response to the U.S. attacks. “They weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East,” Trump asserted. “Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”
Asked again later whether it was true that nobody on the American side had suggested a contingency involving counterattacks against Dubai, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and others, Trump replied: “Nobody, nobody, no, no, no. The greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit.”
Note: Prior to become President, Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of the victorious Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, supervising the invasion of Normandy in 1944.
Eisenhower’s willingness to accept responsibility for failure, which Galen notes in his Trump criticism, is an acknowledged part of WWII history. According to the National Archives, “On the eve of the D-Day invasion (June 5, 1944), General Dwight D. Eisenhower prepared two distinct messages regarding the operation’s outcome. One was the public ‘Order of the Day’ celebrating victory, while the other was a private, handwritten note, later known as the ‘In Case of Failure’ letter, which accepted sole responsibility if the landings failed.”