Misleading: Trump is First President to Not Start New War

The statement made by Donald Trump Jr. (and others) is vague, but misleading. First, he does not specify what “modern history” means. Does he mean since the beginning of the 21st century? After World War 2? According to historians, modern history began after the end of the Middle Ages, centuries ago. 

Secondly, the use of the term “war” is equally vague in the United States. Believe it or not, there hasn’t actually been an official declaration of war between the U.S. and another country since 1942. Technically speaking, no president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has begun a new war.

In spite of this technicality, the U.S. has certainly been involved in armed conflicts all over the world since WWII, official or not. Since the attack against the World Trade Center in 2001, many of the military operations of the U.S. have fallen under the label of “counterterrorism,” fighting against specific organizations (such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS) instead of sovereign nations.

While it is true that the Trump Administration gradually withdrew forces from the middle east and central Asia, that did not mean the end of military involvement. Throughout the entirety of the last four years, military activity of all sorts has been conducted in Yemen, amongst other nations.

In summary, the assertion that Trump did not start any new wars is technically true, but he is not the first president to not start a new war in recent history. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. and its presidents have had a deeply complicated history of military conflicts.