If You Fund the War, You Support the War

Power without restraint only repeats the mistakes of the past.

There is almost universal agreement among Democrats that Trump’s illegal war in Iran is a mistake. The overwhelming majority of elected Democratic officials have spoken out against this conflict and have stated that it is illegal, immoral, and should end. But there is a pocket of Democrats who are strongly considering supporting supplemental funding legislation that will fund Donald Trump’s illegal war. And I want to make something clear: it would be a tremendous mistake for any Democrat in any part of this country to vote for that.

If you vote to fund Donald Trump’s illegal war, you are choosing to endorse it. There is no way to separate the two.

---

Today’s rant is sponsored by Incogni.

Because of the political commentary I do—especially calling out Donald Trump and his administration—I’ve received threats over the years. Not just against me, but against my family.

When that happens, you start thinking a lot more about how easy it is for people to find your personal information online.

Data brokers collect and sell your information—your phone number, address, and more—to anyone willing to pay. That’s how scammers and identity thieves often find their targets.

That’s why I use Incogni. They work to remove your personal data from broker sites and keep monitoring for new exposures.

Try Incogni today and get 55% off annual plans with code MIKE. I use it myself, and it’s a service that’s really important to me.

---

I understand the instinct that a lot of Democratic elected officials are going to have. They’re going to be scared to be seen as not providing our military servicemen and women with the resources they need to keep them safe. I recognize that that is a real thing. But Donald Trump is the one who is putting our men and women—many of them young kids—into harm’s way and getting them killed in a war that he has not articulated a clear case for and that he has not asked Congress to authorize.

If you vote to fund the war, you support the war, period. There is no amount of political messaging that will allow you to get away with that. And even if you try to separate your personal views from the politics of it, voters don’t make that distinction. The choices you make in office are your politics, and people will judge them accordingly. I believe the Democratic Party base will punish you for that.

Keep in mind, this conflict in and of itself is already unpopular, with the majority of Americans saying that they do not support or understand what Donald Trump is doing here. You would be putting yourself at tremendous political risk by voting to fund this.

This is also about accountability. Simply calling yourself a Democrat does not give you a free pass to support harmful decisions, especially in a moment as chaotic and dangerous as the one we are living through under the Trump administration. Elected officials serve the American people, not their own political comfort. And when the overwhelming majority of Americans say they do not support this war, it is the responsibility of their representatives to listen.

This is simply an unnecessary war. There has been no credible explanation for why this conflict is required to protect the United States, no clear objective, and no defined end. The American people have lived through too many wars launched on vague promises and shifting justifications to blindly accept another one.

This is not post-9/11 America. There is not a well of goodwill for the United States to engage in foreign military conflicts like this, nor should there be after the Bush administration squandered that goodwill with its idiotic and deadly invasion of Iraq.

This is a country where, at this moment, the vast majority of Americans are struggling. People can’t afford to put food on the table. They can’t afford to buy a house, take a vacation, or retire with dignity. There are kids graduating from college with mountains of student loan debt into a workforce where there are no jobs for them. Families are struggling to afford rent, groceries, gas, and basic healthcare.

It is also only a matter of time before this conflict collapses under its own weight. When decisions are rushed, when laws are ignored, when consequences are not considered, and when basic economic realities are brushed aside, failure is inevitable. This kind of reckless governance is not sustainable.

At the same time, Americans are watching a political class that promised something very different. Leaders who campaigned on keeping us out of unnecessary wars are now dragging the country into new ones. Officials who claim to stand for law and order are casually throwing around accusations of “domestic terrorism” against people they disagree with while defending their own allies.

And people are noticing.

This administration has been so craven and so transparent in its tactics that more and more Americans are seeing right through it. And it’s not just about Donald Trump anymore. People are starting to recognize the deeper corruption and dysfunction in Washington as a whole.

Look at the Epstein scandal. For years, Americans have watched powerful people across government, finance, and politics evade accountability while the truth about who was involved and how deep it went remains buried. That kind of rot doesn’t just disappear. It erodes trust in institutions and reinforces what millions of Americans already believe: that there is one set of rules for the powerful and another for everyone else. That same loss of trust is exactly why Americans are not willing to blindly accept another war whose purpose has never been clearly explained.

So when politicians vote to send billions and billions of dollars overseas for a war that nobody can clearly explain, while Americans at home are struggling to survive, people are not going to shrug and move on.

They are going to push back.

People are waking up.

A strong country is not one that rushes into unnecessary wars. A strong country understands the cost of conflict and treats it with the seriousness it deserves. These reckless actions upend the lives of millions of people in other countries and destabilize entire regions. When a nation has that kind of power, it demands restraint—and the humility to learn from the mistakes America has made in the past.

The trillions of dollars we have spent on endless conflicts overseas could have rebuilt communities here at home. Our focus must be on investing in the American people and supporting our allies like Ukraine, where our involvement can make our country a force for good—where our investment keeps Americans safe.

Do not be complicit in this war. If you vote to fund it, history will remember exactly where you stood.

P.S. If you’re outspoken online—or just value your privacy—it’s worth checking how much of your personal data is floating around the internet. Check out Incogni today and see how easy it is to start removing it.