U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump of simultaneously waging conflict on three fronts — a shooting war with Iran, a trade war with Canada and a cold war with China — while threatening the NATO alliance and deepening ties with authoritarian governments in the Middle East, arguing that the president has replaced “America First” with what Sanders called “Trump First.”
The remarks came in a post published to X at 10:50 a.m. on August 25, 2026, in which Sanders laid out a sweeping indictment of the administration’s foreign policy record and connected it directly to what he described as America’s declining global standing. The senator’s full statement, published without alteration, read:
“There’s a reason our standing in the world is declining. Trump’s in a war with Iran, a trade war with Canada & a cold war with China. He’s threatening NATO, enabling Netanyahu and cozying up to dictators in Saudi Arabia & the UAE. This isn’t America first. It’s Trump first.”
A War With Iran
Sanders’ reference to an active war with Iran points to Operation Epic Fury, the military conflict that began on February 28, 2026, when the United States, in coordination with Israel, launched strikes against Iranian targets. Sanders has been among the war’s most consistent congressional critics from its opening days, when he called on the Senate to reconvene and vote on a pending War Powers Resolution, describing the conflict as “an illegal, premeditated and unconstitutional war” launched by Trump alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In March, as the war continued, Sanders filed three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval seeking to block nearly $658.8 million in U.S. weapons sales to Israel, arguing that American taxpayers should not be arming a government he said was responsible for widespread civilian casualties in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza. At the time, Sanders said the war had already left 13 Americans dead and hundreds more injured, while costing taxpayers roughly a billion dollars a day.
Sanders has repeatedly criticized the administration’s continued military support for Netanyahu’s government throughout the conflict, a theme he returned to directly in Tuesday’s post by naming Netanyahu alongside Trump as central to the erosion of America’s global reputation.
A Trade War With Canada
Sanders’ mention of a trade war with Canada follows the sudden collapse of U.S.-Canada trade negotiations late Friday, August 21, hours after Trump told reporters that negotiators had “pretty much” reached a deal. Instead, talks fell apart before a midnight deadline, and the United States moved forward with 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including automobiles, alcohol and dairy products.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by announcing that Canada would match the new U.S. duties “dollar for dollar” beginning September 8, targeting American steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp, paper and electronics. Carney placed the blame for the breakdown squarely on Washington, saying “last-minute changes in the U.S.” had derailed a deal Canada believed was within reach, and later described the tariffs as a deliberate attempt “to hurt and divide us.”
Trump, in a Truth Social post over the weekend, rejected that characterization and accused Canada of wanting “the benefits of being a State, without being one,” while claiming Canada had for years imposed unfair tariffs on American farmers.
A Cold War With China
Sanders’ reference to a “cold war with China” reflects the broader pattern of escalating trade and strategic tension between Washington and Beijing that has run alongside the Canada dispute throughout 2026, part of a wider realignment in which the administration has pursued tariff and sanctions pressure against multiple trading partners at once. Sanders has previously grouped Trump’s approach to China with his approach to Canada and other allies as evidence of an erratic and destabilizing trade posture that he argues has weakened, rather than strengthened, America’s economic position abroad.
Threatening NATO
Sanders’ claim that Trump is “threatening NATO” refers to a series of escalating clashes between the president and the transatlantic alliance throughout the spring and summer of 2026, driven largely by his anger at European allies for declining to join the Iran war. In April, Trump called NATO a “paper tiger” and said he was weighing withdrawal from the alliance after member states refused to send ships to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at the time that the administration would “have to reexamine the value of NATO.”
During a subsequent meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump reportedly told the alliance chief “I just want loyalty,” and later wrote on Truth Social that “NATO wasn’t there when we needed them, and they won’t be there if we need them again.” Rutte told reporters afterward that Trump was “clearly disappointed” with many of the alliance’s members. Analysts have since warned that even short of a formal withdrawal, Trump’s rhetoric has damaged trust in America’s Article 5 collective-defense commitments and pushed European allies to explore greater self-reliance.
Enabling Netanyahu, Cozying Up to Saudi Arabia and the UAE
Sanders’ post also renewed his long-running criticism of the administration’s relationships with Netanyahu’s government and Gulf monarchies. Sanders has repeatedly accused Trump of enabling Netanyahu’s war conduct through continued arms sales even as civilian casualties mounted in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza, calling the Israeli leader “wrong in 2002” and “wrong now” in a separate Senate statement earlier this year.
On the question of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Sanders has previously accused the administration of prioritizing foreign deal-making over stated “America First” principles, pointing in an earlier post to the approval of jet and tank sales to Saudi Arabia and to $187 million his family said flowed from the UAE to a Trump-linked cryptocurrency venture just days before his inauguration.
A Recurring Theme: “Trump First,” Not “America First”
Tuesday’s post continues a message Sanders has repeated consistently throughout 2026. In July, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, Sanders argued that the same dynamic he sees driving foreign policy — personal and financial interests overriding stated principles — also runs through the administration’s domestic decisions, citing what he said was more than $2.2 billion in earnings by Trump during his first year back in office and $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency-related income for the Trump family. “Let’s be clear: Trump’s administration is not ‘America First,'” Sanders said at the time. “It is ‘Trump First.'”
Broader Context
Sanders’ Tuesday post arrives amid a period of unusually dense foreign policy strain for the administration, with the Iran war, the Canada trade collapse and NATO tensions all converging within the same news cycle. The senator, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats and has served as Vermont’s senior senator since 2007, has positioned himself throughout the year as one of the most vocal critics of the administration’s use of military force and trade leverage, frequently linking individual controversies into a broader narrative about the direction of U.S. foreign policy under Trump.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the White House had not issued a public response to Sanders’ post. The senator’s office did not indicate whether he planned to introduce related legislation or floor remarks addressing the specific claims made in the statement.