Former President Barack Obama said on Saturday that Trump administration officials had called the war with Iran “the best war ever,” then asked a Cleveland rally crowd, “How’s that war going?” Obama spoke nearly eight months after the United States and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28.
“Because remember, they said, well, this is the best war ever. It’s going great. So seven months later, how’s that war going?” Obama said, according to C-SPAN video of the event and a livestream on his X account. He did not name the officials he was paraphrasing, and no public statement by an administration official using the phrase “best war ever” was found.
Obama introduced the remark by saying Trump “pulled out of it, starts this war, seven months later, six months after they declared victory.” “It” referred to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by Obama’s administration, from which Trump withdrew in 2018. Obama was campaigning for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown 10 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Trump did use language close to Obama’s second phrase. “Our Military Operation in Iran is going GREAT!” he wrote in a March 27 Truth Social post. On March 4, four days after the strikes began, he said at a White House event: “We’re doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say. Somebody said, ‘On a scale of 10, where would you rate it?’ I said, ‘About a 15,'” according to the official transcript. “We have the greatest military in the world, by far.”
The “declared victory” Obama cited corresponds to an April 8 White House statement on a ceasefire, in which press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “a victory for the United States of America that the President and our incredible military made happen.” The ceasefire announcement came about six and a half months before Obama’s speech. U.S. strikes resumed on July 7 after Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Congress in a July 10 War Powers letter.
“Our allies and our bases have been attacked. Americans have been killed. Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We have run down our stock of missiles. And Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz where oil goes through to the world market,” Obama said. “This is the reason why the price of oil is up. Nobody disputes that.”
The Pentagon has confirmed U.S. deaths and hundreds of injuries in the conflict, with the official death toll raised to 21 service members on Oct. 10, the Washington Post reported. Obama did not cite a source for his statement about missile stocks.
Trump did not respond directly to Obama on Saturday. Speaking to reporters after voting early in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier that day, Trump said of Iran: “I may have to finish it off. Or maybe they’ll make a deal, but I’m not sure. Either way, we win,” the Associated Press reported.
As of early Sunday, the White House had not issued a statement addressing Obama’s remarks.
That officials called the conflict “the best war ever” is Obama’s characterization; no public statement by Trump or an administration official using that phrase was found. His recollection that they said “it’s going great” matches Trump’s March 27 post, and Trump’s “about a 15” rating and the White House’s April declaration of “a victory” also reflect the administration’s confident assessments. Obama said “seven months,” while the war began nearly eight months before the rally. His statements on U.S. deaths and hundreds of wounded are consistent with Pentagon figures as reported, while his claim about depleted missile stocks was not sourced.