The rationale for striking Iran was already a mess. Trump just made it worse.
By: Aaron Blake/CNN
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Trump administration’s stated justifications for going to war with Iran were already a jumbled and self-contradictory mess .
But on Tuesday, Trump made it even worse — laying waste to the administration’s confusing explanation from Monday.
Just a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that Iran posed an imminent threat — because it would respond to imminent attacks from Israel by striking US forces — Trump went with an entirely different explanation: that Iran was going to launch preemptive strikes against the US on its own.
“It was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” the president said.
And with that, the botched rollout of the Trump administration’s case for war enters yet another chapter.
Rubio had already turned plenty of heads with his claims on Monday.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said . “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
This was problematic for a couple of reasons.
For one, it was different from the explanations for why Iran posed an imminent threat that had been offered in the days before the war began. Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was leading negotiations with Tehran, initially claimed Iran was “probably a week away” from having nuclear bomb-making material. Then Trump in his State of the Union address last week claimed Iran would “soon” have the ability to strike the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
But those claims didn’t square with either US intelligence or with the administration’s past claims about having “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program just eight months ago.
Additionally, Rubio’s explanation made it sound a little like Israel was the tail wagging the dog — the that US was having its decisions about going to war dictated by an ally. The Trump administration on Tuesday set about trying to dispel that notion, saying Rubio’s explanation was not about why the US went to war, period, but why the US went to war when it did .
But Trump has now taken exception to that narrative, scrambling his administration’s messaging yet again. When asked Tuesday whether Israel had forced his hand, he claimed it was Iran that was about to strike.
“It was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” Trump said of Iran . “They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”
He added: “And based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.”
Trump then seemed to point to possible disagreements within his administration on the subject.
“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 attacked,” Trump said. “They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others. You’re seeing that right now. … So I think I was right about that.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chimed in shortly after on social media , saying Trump’s explanation was “100% correct.”
And after Trump’s remarks, Rubio on Tuesday afternoon denied that he had attributed any part of the rationale to following Israel. He instead lined up behind the president’s latest explanation.
“The bottom line is this: The president determined we were not going to get hit first. It’s that simple, guys. We are not going to put American troops in harms way,” Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill.
It’s difficult to overstate just how much this contradicts Rubio’s version of events and opens up a new can of worms.
The idea that Iran was about to strike against the US would be the easiest and cleanest justification, if it were substantiated. But that’s notably not the justification that Rubio — or anybody else — offered, at least not before Tuesday.
Rubio instead pitched a much more complicated, bank-shot theory in which Israel’s imminent action by extension made Iranian attacks against the US imminent as well. It’s debatable whether that was a sufficient justification, but at least it was logically plausible.
But it also risked solidifying a narrative that was very un-Trump – one in which he was not the top dog but was instead being led or even coerced into war by Israel.
That was already a narrative that had raised concerns in certain circles. (See: Megyn Kelly’s show on Monday .) And we’ve already seen Trump try to claim credit for killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even as his administration has sought to emphasize that portion of the mission was undertaken by Israel.
So while it’s not exactly a surprise that Trump would overcorrect, he’s created a whole new set of problems.
The question now will be what intelligence backs up Trump’s assertion. If it doesn’t exist, it raises the prospect that the US went to war basically on Trump’s premonition.
And the administration is now on at least its fourth different explanation for why Iran posed an imminent threat in less than 10 days, including the two most recent versions that directly contradict one another.
Trump is no stranger to throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. But it’s something else entirely to be doing that with a subject as serious as the justification for war — especially when US service members have died.
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Sure he does. And the 2020 election was stolen.
How many people are naive, ignorant and/or stupid enough to believe it?
I think I would be concerned if I lived in "The Great Satan" if an extremist regime had weapons-grade uranium, had previously refused IAEA inspections of even one of its locations, was developing long-range missiles and led its people in the chanting of "Death to America".
it won't be the only civil war trump tries to start this year ...
Very true Dev. I have been thinking about the real reason behind Turnip and Israel chumming it up and starting this stupid war. I read that the two war mongers have split up now, which makes the whole idea of their starting this needless and deadly war inane.
One thing that came into my mind, is that Trump is totally desperate to get a Nobel Piece prize, so as the mid-term election is just around the corner, so by starting this war, needlessly putting so many innocent lives in danger, he can let his wish come true.
Once the war has raged long enough to whip the world into a raging blood letting frensy, so when his heinous, cruel war has reached it's peak, Trump will do an about face and start to try to make peace. He will pretend to be a peace maker, thinking the people will all think he is just trying to protect the world from the heathen Iranians.
By playing his political gamesmanship he can not only prevent the Dems from winning enough votes to insure he can win the mid-term election, as well as his perverse craving for a Nobel Peace prize.
I know....it is like a white feather that will be dragged through the horse manure Trump spreads profusely everywhere, and telling people it is just fertilizer.
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. But, it is sure to bring many undeserved deaths and tears.
JMOO
bibi figured out years ago that trump was an ignorant patsy that he could manipulate at will ...
pay close attention in the next 3 months as we approach the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. you'll notice that those that are making the most patriotic noises will be the trump supporting scum that totally fail in their embrace and comprehension of our founding documents, traditions, and american ideals.
Well it looks like my gut feeling on the reason behind Trump's starting his war may not be far fetched. Now we wait to see if Trump gets nominated for the Nobel peace prize he is so desperate for by now quickly ending the war.
Surely the human sacrifices all around is well worth it to get Trump the prize he so desperately craves. Right? /s
He felt strongly that Iran would attack first. Did he feel that in his balls? Oh...wait....
bibi convinced him last month to get it done, since he knew trump would probably be impeached again ...
We basically conducted a sneak attack on another country based on Trump's premonitions. His premonitions most likely equal lies.
operation epstein fury ...
Either of those scenarios seems highly improbable. This language is crafted so as to seem to comply with current law allowing the president to act on his own authority when we are attacked or the circumstances are that hostility is imminent. It’s part of the fiction - the lie that we tell ourselves - that we are always defending ourselves, not attacking, and not going to war. Therefore, we are better people than other countries. We have been telling ourselves this lie since at least 1950. Sadly, Trump didn’t invent it.
Trump is retarded.....seriously, that's as polite as I can be.
his rapid descent into dementia can no longer be hidden from public view ...
That's the nicest thing I've ever heard anyone normal say about him.
said to me, that would be taken as an insult ...
Could be that Trump actually is "Great Satan" Iran has been crowing about. Religion, Bigotry and Greed.