Donald Trump’s love for throwing around certain words that are not apt for the occasion is well known. Now he has a favorite word to describe the Iran war, which he launched along with Israel. While talking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump used the word “excursion” to describe the deadly war.
In his words, the attacks on Iran were a “short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years.” He then added, “47 years it’s taken to do this, and no president had the guts to do it.”
Trump again used the term on Monday during a press conference in Doral, Florida, when he said, “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion. Short term. Short term!” He further added, “This was just an excursion into something that had to be done. We’re getting very close to finishing that, too.”
🚨JUST IN: President Trump says Operation Epic Fury will be a “short-term excursion.”
“I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.”
“How good is our military, right?”
“Short-term. Short-term.”pic.twitter.com/Uoub9rudq4
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 9, 2026
Now, “excursion” is not a word usually used to describe a war since it refers to a short trip that is generally taken for leisurely purposes. A war is not a leisurely activity and given the way the U.S. and Israel launched the attack on Iran, the word “excursion” is highly inappropriate.
However, Trump does not seem to care about what the word he is using to describe the devastating situation actually means. His repeated usage of the term led Sen. Tim Kaine to slam the President, saying, “You can’t watch that and feel that that way of characterizing this is [not] deeply disrespectful.”
The usage of the word also drew the attention of CNN’s Jim Sciutto, as he took to X and posted, “Trump just used a new word for the war in Iran: ‘an excursion’.” Besides using this highly inappropriate word to describe the war, previously, Trump has also been inconsistent in providing a timeline for when the situation would be under control.
When he said the war was going to be a “short-term excursion”, he was naturally asked about it by a journalist, who questioned, “You said it would be over soon. Are you thinking this week it will be over?”
Trump replied, “I think so soon. Very soon. Look, everything they have is gone, including their leadership. Two levels of leadership are gone. It’s obviously been very powerful, very effective.”
President Donald Trump said Monday that the war against Iran would be a “short-term excursion,” while insisting that the US still hasn’t “won enough” against Tehran.
“We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some people. And I think you’ll see… pic.twitter.com/v3CIbhhpgc
— KUWAIT TIMES (@kuwaittimesnews) March 9, 2026
It should be noted here that Trump’s inconsistent reasoning behind attacking Iran and his lack of clarity regarding when the war would end or what would happen afterward have been a source of concern. Now, even as he claims the war will soon end, his words do not necessarily align with those of his own administration as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that it is just the beginning.
When the President was questioned about the same by ABC Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang on Monday, he said, “Well, I think you can say both. It’s the beginning of building a new country… we could call it a tremendous success right now. As we leave here, I could call it. Or we could go further and we’re going to go further. But the big risk on that war has been over for three days. We wiped them out in the first two days.”
With Trump trivializing the horrors of the war with a word like “excursion” and his contradictory statements that clash with his own administration, the general populations of the countries involved are suffering the most.
