PRESIDENT TRUMP said Wednesday he’s given Iran the “ultimate ultimatum,” as he publicly weighs whether to wade into the war between Israel and Iran.
“I have ideas as to what to do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I like to make a final decision one second before it’s due.”
The president will hold a second meeting in the Situation Room late Wednesday with senior military and Cabinet officials.
Trump, who has talked about how he likes to maintain an element of mystery around his intentions as a negotiating tactic, said U.S. involvement in the war is very much on the table.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said earlier in the day. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble. And they want to negotiate. And I say why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction.”
The president was asked what he meant by calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“You know what it means,” Trump responded. “That means I’ve had it … No more.”
“For 40 years they’ve been saying ‘Death to America, Death to Israel’… they were bullies, they were school yard bullies, and now they’re not bullies anymore,” he added. “But we’ll see what happens, right?”
Trump’s remarks come on the sixth day of conflict in the Middle East, as Israel makes headway in its efforts to cripple Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel pummeled Tehran with missile strikes early Wednesday morning. Israel’s defense minister said they’d destroyed Iran’s Internal Security Headquarters.
Israeli officials said they’d likely achieve the bulk of their military objectives within a week or two, according to the Times of Israel.
Trump echoed that timeline.
“The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week, maybe less,” he said.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has lost many of his top military officials and scientists, and the U.S. says it knows where Khamenei is hiding.
Still, Iran is said to be preparing missiles for a counterattack, and The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Israel is running low on missile interceptors.
The U.S. Embassy in Israel is working to evacuate Americans there.
Khamenei rejected calls for surrender, and warned that U.S. involvement in the war would result in “irreparable damage to them.”
“We will never surrender in response to the attacks of anyone,” he said in a post on X.
Iran’s top allies, Russia and China, have largely remained on the sidelines so far.
However, Russia’s Foreign Ministry weighed in Tuesday, calling on Israel to stop targeting Tehran’s nuclear sites because it could lead to global “nuclear catastrophe.”
U.S. INVOLVEMENT DIVIDES REPUBLICANS
The big question hanging over Washington is how far Trump will go, if the U.S. does get involved.
The range of options includes everything from using bunker buster bombs to destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, to regime change.
The Hill’s Ellen Mitchell writes:
“The U.S. military is positioning itself to potentially join Israel’s assault on Iran, as President Trump weighs direct action against Tehran to deal a permanent blow to its nuclear program.”
There are myriad political forces tugging at Trump.
Israel is hopeful the U.S. joins the bombardment, with former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant telling CNN that Trump has “the option to change the Middle East and influence the world.
Traditional Republicans are on board with targeted strikes.
“You’re seeing Israel now with overwhelming amounts of force,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) told NewsNation’s “On Balance” host Leland Vittert. “They know they’ve got the United States standing side by side with Israel in this very important moment.”
“Because once this regime topples, once they’ve destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities, this is a reset for the Middle East and a reset for the world,” Daines added.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said the U.S. “should not engage in regime change in Iran.”
“Our focus should only be on our national security,” she posted on X. “The Iranian regime has threatened the US with nuclear production for years. We should support Israel in eliminating the Natanz and Fordo sites to prevent the threat of an atomic bomb used against us. The Iranian people should decide who they want to be their leader. That’s their decision, not ours. Stay focused.”
The anti-war right is increasingly vocal about how Trump would be breaking his campaign promises by engaging in a foreign war, underscored by a contentious back-and-forth between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is advocating for action, and Tucker Carlson, who opposes any U.S. involvement.
Carlson quizzed Cruz on his show, peppering him with a question about Iran’s population, which Cruz did not know.
“You don’t know the population in the country you seek to topple?” Carlson responded.
Cruz fired back in multiple posts on X, accusing Carlson of circulating a meaningless “gotcha” soundbite.
“The cornerstone of American foreign policy should always be the vital security interests of the United States,” Cruz said. “President Trump and I understand that the best way to avoid war is to be strong.”
“The Iranian regime has been trying to murder President Trump and other American officials for years,” he added. “It is one of the most basic facts about the threat they pose to the national security of the United States. And yet, there are people who don’t want to act against the Ayatollah – and so they deny the assassination threats over, and over, and over, and over.”
Read the takeaways from that discussion here.
The same back and forth has been playing out among other GOP lawmakers, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), an isolationist, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an interventionist.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, told reporters the MAGA crowd would ultimately support the president if he decides to join Israel in its strikes against Iran.
“If President Trump decides there’s not a diplomatic alternative … because he’s been consistent, no nuclear weapon,” Bannon said. “If President Trump decides to do that, I know, and particularly his skills as a communicator, that he will come and walk people through it and the MAGA movement — look, they’ll be some — but the vast majority of the MAGA movement will say, ‘look, we trust your judgment, you walked us through this … maybe we hate it but you know, we’ll get on board.’”
