Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson said President Donald Trump has a “golden” opportunity to address a global issue facing the United States during his State of the Union speech.
Benson said polling data show the public wants to hear what the president has to say about his plans for the economy, advising Trump to use “the huge platform” he has Tuesday night to do so. He also advised against rebuking the Supreme Court justices attending the speech over their ruling on Trump’s tariffs, saying this would be “a waste of time.”
“And then, you got to at least, I think, tell the American people sort of what you’re thinking and what the case is on Iran, without tipping your hand too much necessarily,” Benson said Tuesday on Fox News’s Fox & Friends.
“But there’s this buzz about a potential war, a lot of people are like, ‘Wait, what’s this about?’ Here is a huge opportunity, a golden one you might even say, to inform the public, ‘Alright, here’s what’s at stake.’”
The possibility of military strikes against Iran has caused some uncertainty over Tuesday’s State of the Union speech. The White House has repeatedly stated it prefers a diplomatic solution to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, though Trump’s continued deployments have reignited congressional debate over his war powers.
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Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York expressed uncertainty last week on whether Trump has explained to the public why military action against Iran is necessary. He added that, depending on the military action, there must be “a presidential justification” for taking it, and “we just haven’t had it” yet from the president.
Trump denied on Monday that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine has been considering a targeted strike on Iran that leads to a broader military conflict in the region. He also insisted he is the one who holds the authority to order such an attack, even though Congress is the sole body that can declare war against another nation.