Trump Reveals Why There’s No Evacuation Plan for Trapped Americans
Donald Trump admitted in the White House Tuesday that he didn’t have an evacuation plan for Americans in the Middle East before bombing Iran.
“Thousands of Americans are stranded. Why wasn’t there an evacuation plan?” a reporter asked Trump while he was meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Well, because it happened all very quickly. We thought, and I thought, maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco [Rubio], but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked,” Trump said, going off on a tangent about Iran attacking countries around the region.
Reporter: Thousands of Americans are stranded. Why wasn't there an evacuation plan?
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 3, 2026
Trump: Well, because it happened all very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more so than most. I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be… pic.twitter.com/DdAKasW8TT
Nowhere in Trump’s response to the reporter’s question was there any concern about Americans who find themselves stuck in the Middle East with flights grounded.
U.S. embassies in the region have warned stranded U.S. citizens that they’re on their own, after the State Department urged Americans in 14 different countries to use any “available commercial transportation” to evacuate. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday directed Americans to the State Department’s Smart Traveller Enrolment Program, an old service that helps facilitate contact between American expatriates and U.S. embassies.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s seeming abandonment of Americans stuck in countries facing Iranian or Israeli attacks has drawn flak from politicians on social media. Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene complained on X that “American tax payers are forced to give Israel $3.8 BILLION every single year, and here is our own U.S. embassy in Jerusalem telling Americans good luck getting out, you are on your own.”
“Warnings to citizens to evacuate 3 days into this war, when airspace is closed, is a clear sign of ZERO strategy and planning by the Trump admin,” Democratic Senator Andy Kim posted on X. “Now Americans have limited options to evacuate at an extremely dangerous moment with no government assistance. This administration is failing its citizens.”
“So the State Department is forcing everyone to immediately leave the region but is also refusing to help people leave the region,” fellow Democrat and Senator Chris Murphy concurred. “The strike itself is illegal and disastrous but their lack of readiness for what comes next is unforgivable as well. Incompetence everywhere.”
All of this goes to show that the Trump administration did not have a plan for the aftermath of war on Iran, or for what to do with the collateral damage. Not only are American service members stuck in harm’s way, but ordinary citizens are too.