Here’s Where Trump Got the Brilliant Idea to Bomb Iran

Donald Trump’s decision to drag the United States into a war in the Middle East was all about how it would look on television.

The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump had been effusive about Israel’s sweeping military operation in Iran, targeting the latter country’s ballistic missile and nuclear facilities, military officials, and nuclear scientists.

Ever the entertainer, Trump “asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were ‘playing’ on Friday June 13.” “He said that ‘everyone’ was telling him he needed to get more involved,” the Times reported, but it’s not clear who exactly Trump was talking about.

The next day, Trump’s team reportedly paid close attention to how his supporters were responding to Israel’s military campaign. Meanwhile, Trump kept his eyes glued to Fox News as it aired “wall-to-wall praise” of Israel’s operation and hosted guests urging the president to wade into the conflict.

Several of Trump’s advisers were reportedly lamenting the loss of Tucker Carlson, who’d come out strongly against U.S. involvement in Iran, from his gig on the president’s favorite channel because it meant Trump didn’t hear any opposition, according to the Times.

Last week, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Fox News had gone all in on attacking Iran.

“Trump’s favorite TV network has staked out the pro-war position—and it isn’t making as much room for debate,” Stetler wrote. “Guest after guest on Fox has played to Trump’s ego—simultaneously praising the president and pushing for US intervention through his television screen.”

Fox News host Mark Levin, whom Trump recently appointed to his revamped Homeland Security Advisory Council, screamed about a battle of “good versus evil” during one broadcast last week.

Although Trump postured as if he opposed Israel’s strike beforehand, he told reporters it was “excellent” and “very successful,” and heavily implied that he’d been involved in some way. Israeli officials have claimed that Trump had even given the “green light” for a strike beforehand.

Iran announced Monday that it has begun its retaliation against the United States after Donald Trump bombed three nuclear facilities over the weekend.

Iranian missiles flew toward U.S. bases in both Qatar and Iraq, while sirens were also heard in Bahrain and Kuwait. Israeli sources said Iran fired 10 missiles at Qatar and one missile at Iraq, CNN reported.

The Qatar-bound missiles targeted the Al Udeid air base, which houses U.S. troops. Iranian state TV announced the news, calling the attack “a mighty and successful response by the armed forces of Iran to America’s aggression.”

Shortly thereafter, Qatar said it reserves the right to respond directly. No casualties have been reported thus far. Three Iranian officials told The New York Times that they had given advance notice to Qatar of the strikes in order to minimize casualties, making it more of a symbolic retaliation.

Israel continued its strikes in Tehran on Monday, bombing Evin Prison, where the Islamic Republic detains many political prisoners. The IDF also once again warned the 10 million residents of the capital to evacuate, stressing that they should stay away from weapons production centers and military bases.

This story has been updated.

Republicans are bending over backward to justify Donald Trump’s attack on Iran.

Speaking with Fox Business on Monday, North Carolina Representative Pat Harrigan tried to explain away U.S. involvement in the Middle East conflict by claiming that the Trump administration was promoting peace through war.

“We’re trying to lower the temperature of global conflict while simultaneously kind of raising it here in order to lower it,” Harrigan said, agreeing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Iran should not retaliate. “It would be Iran’s worst decision … to come back and attack American troops.”

By Monday afternoon, Iran had launched six missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, reported Reuters.

Despite its previous attestations against sending the U.S. to war, it is not clear when Republican leadership will align the party consensus with national opinion and condemn U.S. involvement in Iran.

Trump enjoyed widespread Republican support on the 2024 campaign trail due to an apparently false belief that the MAGA leader would not pursue war—but some of that support is beginning to wane, forging yet another rift in the conservative party.

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie is one of a handful of Republicans to recently turn on the president while Trump fanned the flames of combat between Israel and Iran.

“Let’s not pretend any President has authority to engage in a war without a vote and without funding from Congress. The Constitution requires we vote,” Massie wrote on X Friday.

Massie also chastized House Speaker Mike Johnson for practically handing over Congress’s sole authority to declare war to the White House, questioning online why the leading Republican lawmaker did not “call us back from vacation to vote on military action if there was a serious threat to our country.”

But the president has already turned his extraordinarily well-funded political machine against his naysayers. By Sunday, Trump and his allies had formed a super PAC aimed at kicking Massie out of national politics for good.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene somehow continues to be one of the most coherent and consistent right-wing voices against the U.S. war on Iran.

The MAGA hard-liner lambasted President Trump and his foreign policy on Monday, accusing him of betraying his true supporters in a “complete bait and switch” by expanding U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

“I spent millions of my own money and TRAVELED THE ENTIRE COUNTRY campaigning for President Trump and his MAGA agenda and his promises. And Trump’s MAGA agenda included these key promises: NO MORE FOREIGN WARS. NO MORE REGIME CHANGE. WORLD PEACE. And THIS is what the people voted for. Only 6 months in and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and world war 3,” Taylor Greene wrote on X.

“It feels like a complete bait and switch to please the neocons, warmongers, military industrial complex contracts, and neocon tv personalities that MAGA hates and who were NEVER TRUMPERS! After the bombs were dropped, we were told ‘complete success’ and Iran’s nuclear capabilities were totally wiped out. Then it quickly turned to Iran’s nuclear facilities ‘partially damaged’ and now it’s ‘we don’t know where their enriched uranium is.’”

Greene continued, calling for a world in which her Gen Z children were free of continuous foreign war.

“I am FIGHTING for them to have a future where they can afford to buy a home, afford insurance, invest for retirement, enjoy life, retain their God given freedoms, afford to raise a family under their Christian faith, not be in debt, safety and security, AND NOT HAVE OUR OWN TAX PAYER FUNDED GOVERNMENT DESTROY IT ALL. Contrary to [what] brainwashed Democrat boomers think and protest about, Trump is not a king, MAGA is not a cult, and I can and DO have my own opinion.”

Taylor Greene has been speaking out against the U.S. war on Iran for days now, along with other right-wing voices like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Alex Jones. This dynamic once again demonstrates the growing split between traditional D.C. neocons and the deep MAGA conservatives at the heart of Trump’s support system.

Trump has floated regime change in Iran nonetheless. At least 430 Iranian civilians have been killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes so far.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was not impressed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sudden ability to keep his mouth shut about U.S. military plans.

Newsmax host Todd Starnes offered his congratulations to Hegseth Saturday for pulling off sweeping strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities without giving up the game.

“Not a single leak. Well done, @SecDef,” Starnes wrote in a post on X.

The New York Democrat didn’t see that as quite the cause for celebration.

“This is like applauding a grown man for being able to wipe their behind,” Cortez responded in a post on X. “Not exactly a vote of confidence.”

Earlier this year, Hegseth sent sensitive details about a U.S. military strike on Yemen to one Signal group chat that had the editor in chief of The Atlantic, and another chat that included his wife, brother, and attorney.

Hegseth’s Pentagon has become “consumed” by the search for leakers, according to Colin Caroll, who served as the chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary before being ousted as the result of a leak investigation. Some believe Caroll’s removal was motivated by an explosive power struggle between defense aides.

“If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50 percent of it is probably a leak investigation,” Carroll said in April.