Historian and professor of strategic studies Phillips P. O’Brien is warning that President Donald Trump’s military may be committing war crimes, and doing so seems to be “official” U.S. policy.

“The USA seems to have deliberately and with foresight, committed a war crime as an act of policy,” O’Brien writes at his Substack newsletter. “If this is right, and all evidence seems to say it is, committing acts of terror is now an acceptable method of war in the judgement of the US government and, by extension, the American people.”

O’Brien points to the U.S. military’s strike on “two reservoirs and a water treatment facility in southern Iran,” cutting off water to 20,000 civilians in what OBrien says is 115-degree heat, similar to America’s Death Valley.

He explains that it likely was a deliberate attack because there are no military installations in the area, “and the destruction was precise.”

It is “hard to see this as a mistake,” he writes. “The target was too specialized, too localized and the effect seems calibrated.”

Asking, “Is It A War Crime?” O’Brien answers, “Without a doubt.”

The U.S. “has attacked, seemingly deliberately, a facility vital to the maintenance of human life that has no discernible military utility. So yes, it is a war crime.”

Making the act even more “perverse,” writes O’Brien, is that “this war crime was deliberately committed because Donald Trump is getting frustrated that the Iranian government is not doing what he wants them to do and that the Iranian military attacked a legitimate military target, a US Apache helicopter that was enforcing a blockade (an act of war remember) against Iran.”

O’Brien calls it “typical, Trump,/organized crime style behavior.”

Trump “attacks a small civilian facility as a threat and warning to Iran that he might go on and commit even greater war crimes if they do not do what he wants.”

Later, “while speaking to Fox News reporters, Trump went ahead and said he might start mass attacks on Iran’s bridges and electricity power generation.”

“He also tweeted out that if Iran did not do what he wants it to do, that it would have to “pay the price” of their defiance,” says O’Brien.

He concludes that a “historic war crime” was committed “because the President of the USA can think of nothing better to do.”

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Political strategist Steve Schmidt warns that in Donald Trump’s America, shame — “one of freedom’s guardians” — has vanished. Humiliation now reads as a “badge of honor.” Conscience has curdled into “inconvenience.” Schmidt argues the result is institutional erosion and real danger to society.

“There was a time in America when public disgrace meant something,” says Schmidt at The Warning. “A man caught lying to the public would resign. A politician caught in corruption would retreat from public life. A leader who dishonored his office would feel the sting of judgment from neighbors, colleagues, family members and strangers.”

Under Trump, the America where people “understood that character mattered” and that “a good name took a lifetime to build and a moment to lose” is gone, because what is essential, shame, has “disappeared.”

Schmidt says the disappearance of shame may be “the most consequential political development of the last quarter century.”

Shame, he explains, was a “warning light.” It was “society’s way of enforcing standards when laws couldn’t,” and it “reminded people where the boundaries were.”

Schmidt points directly to Trump’s actions.

“Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse. He attempted to overturn an election. He incited a mob against the United States Congress. He has told thousands upon thousands of documented lies,” he writes. “None of it brought shame. None of it produced reflection. None of it inspired remorse.”

Scandals have now become fundraising appeals, disgrace has become “grievance.”

“The lesson was clear: the shameless man held power over the ashamed man because he no longer recognized limits.”

Schmidt points the finger at technology, and specifically, social media.

Public life has become “performance.”

“Attention became more valuable than respect,” Schmidt observes. “Fame became more valuable than honor. The ability to provoke became more valuable than the ability to inspire.”

He explains that in Trump’s America, someone can simultaneously be “condemned” by millions and “celebrated” by millions more.

“The result is a culture where shamelessness is often mistaken for strength,” he says, and warns about not just corruption, but “indifference” to it.

“The danger is the normalization of conduct that once would have shocked the conscience,” he explains.

Schmidt says that this may not be permanent. Societies and cultures can rebuild and recover — but that has to begin with honesty.

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was quick to defend President Donald Trump’s widely reported remarks following Wednesday’s sharp spike in inflation, which is now at a three-year high.

“I knew somebody was going to ask me that,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju. “It was totally out of context, you know what he was talking about.”

When pressed whether Trump’s remarks were what voters want to hear right now, Johnson insisted that the president “is laser-focused on the domestic economic situation.”

“He is working to bring down prices, he is going to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened,” Johnson insisted. “We have passed legislation, he has used executive orders to get the cost of living down. Everybody got their highest tax refunds they’ve had in their whole lives, they’re getting great paychecks, there’s all sorts of great economic indicators, but there’s still challenges — gas prices among them.”

“So, what he was saying is, it’s going to be great having that number and compare it to what comes next when we get these situations resolved — that’ll be a fun thing to consider and compare — that was the context,” said the Speaker.

Speaking about the inflation report, as CNBC reported, Trump had told reporters: “No, I love it, the numbers were great.”

“You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why?”

“Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now … you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil.”

“Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now,” Trump said.

CNBC noted that Trump, “speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, also predicted that inflation is ‘going to come down like a rock’ after the United States’ war against Iran is over.”

Critics blasted Speaker Johnson.

“Trump meant what he said and if people are taking things outta context maybe trump should speak English,” said one social media user.

Another called Johnson a “Trump apologist.”

A third remarked, “Aaaand, right on cue, here’s Mike Johnson, denying Trump said and meant what we all heard him say.”

Speaker Johnson says Trump’s “I love the inflation” comments were taken out of context.

Asked him if that’s what voters want to hear right now. “The president is laser focused on the domestic economic situation.” pic.twitter.com/n3SS0vtqyS

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 10, 2026

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