Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Starting a War With Iran Wouldn’t Help Trump Get Re-Elected

“Wag the Dog” only works in the movies.

January 6, 2020 at 12:33 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Woof.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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I don’t know why President Donald Trump decided to kill the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Perhaps he was rolled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and others; perhaps it was just impulsive.