Did George W. Bush say he was celebrating no longer having started the ‘dumbest war in US history’?

In January 2026, a claim that former President George W. Bush said he was celebrating “no longer having started the dumbest war in U.S. history” made the rounds online. The caption of one highly circulated post (archived) read:

CRAWFORD, TEXAS—Stating, “I never dreamed this day would come,” former President George W. Bush confirmed on Tuesday that he is celebrating no longer having started the dumbest war in U.S. history.

 

“When you make a boneheaded mistake as epic as I did, you pretty much assume that no one will ever do something stupider,” Bush said. “I gotta say, I’m pinching myself.”

 

The former president admitted, however, that “if anyone was going to out-dumb me, it was gonna be this guy.”

 

“Look, I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed,” he said. “But even I know not to stare at an eclipse.”

In 2003, Bush launched the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which turned into a prolonged operation lasting nearly nine years. Although total spending on the Iraq War is contested, a 2007 Congressional Research Service fact sheet estimated that the U.S. spent more than $10 billion in Iraq each month. 

The claim that Bush said he was celebrating not having started the “dumbest war in U.S. history” emerged as the administration of President Donald Trump launched threats on Venezuela’s sovereignty by capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and declaring oversight over Venezuela. Both Iraq and Venezuela are nations rich in crude oil.

After dozens of Snopes readers searched our website to verify the claim, we confirmed there is no evidence Bush made any statement about “celebrating no longer having started the dumbest war in U.S. history.”

Rather, the rumor originated with The Borowitz Report — a site that describes its output as satirical in nature. Its author, Andy Borowitz, wrote on its About page: “I’ve been writing satirical news since I was eighteen. This represents either commitment to a genre or arrested development.”

The New Yorker featured The Borowitz Report as a column for 25 years. Borowitz announced in 2023 that the magazine dropped his column for financial reasons. He then returned to publishing his satirical stories on his own website and social media pages.

If a former U.S. president had actually made such an announcement, reputable news media outlets would have reported it. The Borowitz post included no information regarding when and where Bush allegedly made the statement. A Google search of the quote, “When you make a boneheaded mistake as epic as I did, you pretty much assume that no one will ever do something stupider,” also returned results related only to the satirical story in question.

(Google.com)

Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims stemming from The Borowitz Report in the past, including the assertion that U.S. Vice President JD Vance was the last person to see sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alive and a rumor that Trump said an MRI scan on his brain “found nothing.”

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.

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