We’ve both spent our careers in national security, so we know some core principles will always be up for debate. Should we be realists or idealists? Do we have responsibilities to other nations beyond our immediate self-interest? How long should we let diplomacy go on before we send in the Marines?
Yet one core principle is uncontroversial: good national security decisions are seldom made by trusting one person’s gut, especially when that gut is painfully ill-informed.
U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, fire a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a truck mounted multiple-rocket launcher system, during exercise Steel Knight at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Dec. 13, 2012. The battalion conducted this historic live-fire exercise, simultaneously utilizing HIMARS, M777 Lightweight Howitzer and Expeditionary Fire Support System. This is the first time all three artillery weapons systems were fired during the same exercise. (DoD photo by LCpl Joseph Scanlan, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)
Acting on President Donald Trump’s gut has been a disaster for American national and economic security and American families’ budgets. Americans have paid the price for Trump’s national security dilettantism on everything from Iran to trade.
Yet over and over again, Congress’ current leadership has proven unwilling or unable to restrain decisions made based on little more than impulse and, at best, outdated philosophies.
The answer on Election Day, then, is to vote for candidates who will restrain the decision-making of a president who has proven out of his depth.
President Trump’s national security failures deserve an electoral rebuke, but more importantly, they need a coequal branch of government able to contain the damage and keep him from making an even bigger mess.
The Iran Mess
Start with the war with Iran. We acknowledge that Iran is a threat that supports terrorism and is pursuing a nuclear program that could one day produce nuclear weapons. That it is a threat, however, makes it all the more important to win any confrontation with it. President Trump’s ill-planned war with Iran was riddled with missteps and sloppy strategic thinking.
He failed to prepare the American people to accept even a modicum of sacrifice, making the war politically untenable almost immediately. He failed to adequately prepare for Iran’s most obvious next step (and the subject of countless wargames and contingency plans), namely: closing the Strait of Hormuz and skyrocketing energy prices. He encouraged Iran’s citizens to rise up in revolt, then immediately abandoned them.
Worst of all, he seemed to have no sense of how what he wanted to do — namely, bombing Iran — would lead to any clear objective, be it regime change or forcing the ayatollahs to give up their nuclear ambitions.
The result is that, despite the U.S. military’s tactical brilliance—including effectively eliminating Iran’s navy, decapitating its top rung of leadership, and destroying its air force on the ground—Iran is objectively stronger than when the war began. It has proven it can safeguard its enriched uranium and the core components of its nuclear program through airstrikes. It has handed the reins from an Ayatollah Khamenei in his 80s to one in his 50s, resetting the clock on a destabilizing power struggle. Iran now knows it can make America, and the world, submit by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Americans, paying record prices for oil, gasoline (and particularly diesel), once again battling intense inflation on everything from groceries to clothes, and mourning at least 21 American service members’ lives, are left holding the bag for Trump’s impetuousness.
Meanwhile, Congress did worse than nothing. It affirmatively gave Trump a green light, rejecting war powers resolutions on 15 separate occasions between the Senate and the House.
A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon taxis to be disarmed after returning from a flight during Combat Archer UK at RAF Lakenheath, England, April 15, 2025. Combat Archer UK was one of six elements in the Combat Weapons Systems Evaluation Program, typically held in the U.S. By hosting Combat Archer UK in Europe, U.S. Air Forces Europe saved millions of dollars, allowing them to enhance the mission in other capacities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Jakel)
The Tariff Mess
Trump’s tariff wars have suffered from the same strategic incoherence that doomed his war with Iran. From concept to execution to effect, the tariffs have been a disaster for Americans and have wreaked havoc across the economy. The administration announced the tariffs haphazardly at best, offering no insight into the formula used to calculate the “Liberation Day” tariffs and giving foreign nations no way to avoid a tariff fight. After markets tanked, Trump reversed course at least 28 times over the next 18 months, leaving foreign nations and companies alike unsure how to strike a deal to mitigate tariffs or adjust their supply chains. No company can make long-term capital investments when the ground keeps shifting; as a result, the promised manufacturing investment boom hasn’t happened. In fact, manufacturing investment has dropped by 26.4%.
Again, Americans are left holding the bag, and again, Congress did nothing amidst the chaos. Inflation is nearly double the Fed’s 2% target and 23% higher than when Trump took office. Inflation is outpacing wage growth. Job growth has been anemic, and Congress’ response has been more so. It has managed minor resolutions that Trump promptly ignored.
The Iran war and the trade wars are just two of the most obvious examples of incompetent policies that Congress failed to stop, harming Americans, but you can’t throw a rock without hitting something damaged by Trump’s reckless, ill-informed approach. Our alliances with steadfast allies are in shambles. Erstwhile friends believe we favor dictators over democracies. America’s service members now have to focus more on beards and ideology than basic competence. Our diplomatic capacity and power of persuasion have been cut to the quick. Defense firms understand the quickest way to get a military contract is to hire one of the President’s sons.
This piece gave us no joy to write. One of us served in the first Trump Administration. Both of us have extensive track records of putting country over party. If an initiative is good for America, neither of us gives a damn whether it came from Republicans or Democrats. We’re patriots. Yet sometimes patriotic duty demands little more than lassoing the angry, confused bull in the china shop.
Democratic candidates have made clear they will restrain a president whose incompetence and impulsiveness are leading us to ruin. Republican incumbents and challengers alike have proven they won’t.
Vote accordingly.
About the Authors: David Lapan and Neal Urwitz
Col. Lapan served more than 30 years in the United States Marine Corps and as press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump Administration. Mr. Urwitz is CEO of Enduring Cause Strategies and served as speechwriter for and political advisor to the Secretary of the Navy during the Biden Administration.
