Political commentator Lawrence O’Donnell shredded Donald Trump over the consequences of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran during the latest segment of The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MS Now.
He also called out the President’s family for their non-participation in the war, comparing their avoidance with the historic military services provided by the families of several former presidents during past wars.
“All four of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s sons served in the American military while their father was serving as commander-in-chief, leading this country to victory in World War II,” O’Donnell stated, adding, “It was unthinkable then that a wartime president could have sons who would not serve in the military, like Donald Trump and his sons and his daughters.”
“Abraham Lincoln’s son enlisted during the Civil War,” he pointed out. “No one expected President Lyndon Johnson’s daughters to serve in the Vietnam War in the 1960s before women were allowed full participation in the military service. But President Johnson’s son-in-law served in Vietnam,” the host added.
“The Trump family’s flawless record of avoiding military service would be unremarkable if Donald Trump never started a war,” O’Donnell then mentioned. “But when your father starts a war, an illegal and unconstitutional war, and you are of the age that is eligible to fight and die in your father’s war, what do you do?” he asked.
The broadcaster went on to take a dig at Barron Trump, saying, “There is no suspense tonight about what Barron Trump will do. He will do nothing.”
He then pointed out, “In two weeks, he will have his 20th birthday party. It will surely be a lavish affair. None of his friends will show up in military uniforms. No one who Barron Trump has ever been in a classroom with is likely to have joined the military.”
At the end of Lawrence O’Donnell’s Monday anti-Trump monologue, the MS NOW host implored Barron Trump and Don Jr. to go fight in Iran while making fun of their bravery. pic.twitter.com/PQfjxcYNYE
— Nick (@nspin310) March 3, 2026
O’Donnell further recalled how the President was quoted by his former White House Chief of Staff as saying that “soldiers killed in combat are suckers and losers.”
He then asked, “What does that make a soldier who wasn’t in combat and is killed? What does that make a soldier who was an IT specialist, who was never supposed to be exposed to anything more dangerous than a computer screen, who got killed in action, sitting in what was the safety of his office, until Donald Trump started a war?”
The actor-turned-anchor noted that Barron will not attend the funeral of Declan Coady, one of the six U.S. troops killed in the first hours of the war. He said how Barron, like every member of the President’s family, “has never attended the military funeral of someone they know who was killed in action.”
O’Donnell shared how Coady was also a college student like Barron. He was a sophomore at Drake University and an Army reservist from West Des Moines, Iowa. Coady graduated from Valley High School in West Des Moines in 2023 and served as an Army IT specialist.
The MS Now anchor also mentioned the names of soldiers killed in the conflict, including Captain Cody A. Khork, 35, from Winterhaven, Florida, Sergeant 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, from Bellevue, Nebraska, and Sergeant 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota.
“Tiffany Trump is 32 years old and eligible for military service in her father’s war,” O’Donnell said, adding, “No one in the Trump family will ever have any idea what it’s like when they come and ring your doorbell.”
He shared how Declan Coady’s father, Andrew, said that “the family began to get worried on Sunday when Declan stopped responding to messages from his duty station in Kuwait.” The segment featured interviews from Coady’s father and sister, who opened up about their heartbreaking loss.
“Killed in the line of duty is always agonizingly tragic for the families. But when those doorbells were ringing in World War II, at least the families knew what the soldiers were fighting for when they died,” Lawrence O’Donnell said.
“During the Vietnam War, the doorbell rang for 58,000 American families, and they were told how the soldiers they loved were killed. But they still have never been told why,” he added. The host also alleged that the President’s reason for “starting his unconstitutional and illegal war changes by the hour,” just like everything else he has “ever tried to explain.”
We are heartbroken to learn that Declan Coady—a well-loved and highly dedicated Drake University student studying information systems, cybersecurity, and computer science—was confirmed to be among the six U.S. service members killed in Kuwait on Sunday. He has bravely served in… pic.twitter.com/UyBoP4jNMB
— Drake University (@DrakeUniversity) March 4, 2026
O’Donnell then shared that on the fifth day of the war, 47 United States senators, including one Republican, Rand Paul, voted to end this war, while 53 senators, including one Democrat, John Fetterman, voted to “let Donald Trump continue to do whatever he wants to do with the American military.”
“Those senators did not specifically vote to authorize what Donald Trump is doing. They simply refused to vote to stop it. Even though Donald Trump has not been able to explain to any one of those senators why he chose to launch this war,” the anchor explained.
He then called out the “vacancy and confusion” of Trump’s mind while choosing to launch his war, citing how the President allegedly claimed his father was born in Germany, when he was actually born in New York City. “Think about how lost that mind is,” he stated, adding, “that mind that is supposed to be the mastermind of this illegal and unconstitutional war.”
The show then played a snippet from the President’s White House address from Tuesday, where the 79-year-old was seen saying he loved the UK because his mother was born in the UK.
O’Donnell said he is giving Trump “the benefit of doubt” because, while he did not specifically mouth the words that his father was born in Germany, he said his father was “his father was born there,” while talking about his mother being born in the UK.
“He said his father was ‘born there,’ which could also mean the United Kingdom, but since he was pointing to the Chancellor of Germany, we assumed he meant Germany because the Trump family is German,” O’Donnell explained.
The anchor further mocked the President’s family heritage, claiming they “fled” Europe before his father was born, “because they wanted to evade military service.” He added, “That is why Donald Trump is an American citizen. That is why his father was born in America. Because Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, fled Europe to avoid military service.”
Before concluding the segment, Lawrence O’Donnell mentioned another soldier, 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O’ Brien, from Waukee, Iowa, who lost his life in the war. “The question tonight is: how many more? How many more Iranian civilians, non-combatants, will be killed?” the host asked.
“How many more Iranian protestors against the regime will be killed? How many of those brave women in Iran who stood up to the dictatorship devoted to crushing them will now be crushed and killed by Donald Trump’s war? How many more American soldiers will be killed in Donald Trump’s war? How many more doorbells will ring? And why?” he concluded.
