Trump uses phrase that haunted Bush: ‘Mission Accomplished!’

After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq.

Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the “Mission Accomplished” message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship’s crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.

Said former White House press secretary Dana Perino in 2008: “We have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner.”

The Pentagon backed Trump’s assertion in his tweet Saturday, with chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White saying: “We met our objectives. We hit the sites, the heart of the chemical weapons program. So it was mission accomplished.”

She added, “What happens next depends on what the Assad regime decides to do.”

Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary at the time of the aircraft carrier speech, tweeted Saturday: “I would have recommended ending this tweet with not those two words.”

Revisiting the situation with Bush, he noted that the crew had asked for the sign and said Bush offered more nuanced remarks. But, he acknowledged, the “shot of Bush with the banner became a symbol of what went wrong.”

Catherine Lucey, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Trump uses phrase that haunted Bush: ‘Mission Accomplished!’

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