Trump Contradicts Rubio on Reason for Attacking Iran, Claims Iran Was About to Strike U.S., Israel
President Trump contradicted Secretary of State Marco Rubio today about the reason the United States attacked Iran on Saturday.
Yesterday, Rubio said that Israel forced the U.S. to attack, that Trump had no choice but to go along with the decision to protect U.S. military and diplomatic assets in the region.
Today, Trump said the attack was his idea and that he believed Iran would attack Israel, the United States, or “others.”
Rubio’s Remarks
Rubio let the cat out of the bag while speaking with reporters. He claimed that Trump had to order the attack because Israel had decided to attack Iran.
“The assessment that was made that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties, and so the president made the very wise decision,” the secretary of state said:
We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, 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, and perhaps even higher [numbers] killed. And we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.
That claim didn’t please many of those skeptical about the U.S. military’s role in the Middle East.
Far-left Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas wondered why an ally would put the United States in the position that Rubio described.
“Secretary Rubio’s remarks indicate that Israel put U.S. forces in harm’s way by insisting on attacking Iran,” he wrote on X:
And the administration was complicit — joining their war instead of talking them down
This is unacceptable of the President, and unacceptable of a country that calls itself our ally.
“So he’s confirming that we’re in a war with Iran specifically because of Israel,” FedUpMajority wrote:
It’s time to remove ALL of our military personnel from the region and end all foreign and military aid to Israel. They are not our ally.
Trump Today
During a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump answered a reporter’s question about the reasons for attacking Iran. He directly contradicted his secretary of state.
“It happened all very quickly. We thought, and I thought, maybe more so than most, they could ask Marco, but I feel 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. And a lot of those missiles that are heading in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries, so I think I was right about that. We attacked first, and if we didn’t, it could have been, you know.
Trump claimed the joint U.S.-Israeli attack is “really decimating them, they’re being decimated.”
Trump also claimed that U.S. forces have “massive amounts of ammunition,” despite the Biden administration giving weapons to Ukraine “very stupidly for free.”
“We gave away a lot of high-end [ammunition], but we have plenty, but we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war,” Trump concluded.
Trump Then
Under the video of Trump’s remark on the CBS News X feed, a user posted a screenshot of Trump’s sentiments on the Middle East in 2019.
“The United States has spent EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS fighting and policing in the Middle East,” Trump wrote:
Thousands of our Great Soldiers have died or been badly wounded. Millions of people have died on the other side. GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE…..
That comment followed others Trump had made about Iran going back to 2011, as The New American reported after the U.S. attacked Iran on Saturday.
“Our president will start a war with Iran because he has absolutely no ability to negotiate,” he wrote on Twitter in November 2011 of President Barack Hussein Obama:
He’s weak and he’s ineffective. So the only way he figures that he’s going to get re-elected, and as sure as you’re sitting there, is to start a war with Iran.
“@BarackObama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected,” he wrote on Twitter on January 17, 2012. On September 16, 2013, Trump wrote that Obama would attack Iran to “save face.”
Whatever Trump’s sentiments then, he favors intervening in the Middle East now, spending American money and spilling American blood to do so.
Yesterday, the U.S. Central Command reported that six Americans have thus far been killed in Iran’s retaliatory strikes across the Middle East.
GOP Opposition
Former Trump supporters, such as GOP Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and former GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, attacked Trump again yesterday.
“The administration admits [Israel] dragged us into the Iran war that’s already cost too many American lives and billions of dollars,” Massie wrote about Rubio’s comments:
Before it’s over, the price of gas, groceries, and virtually everything else is going to go up. The only winners in 🇺🇸 are defense company shareholders.
“Most Americans and it’s being proved in polling that’s coming out, most Americans are completely against this war,” Taylor Greene told podcaster Megyn Kelly:
Because like you said, the president has made no case for it. We live our ordinary lives, and we don’t feel threatened by Iran. We don’t walk around thinking that any moment, an Iranian ballistic missile is going to land on our head.
Americans, she said, are focused on paycheck to paycheck living, unaffordable health and auto insurance, and unrepayable credit-card debt and back taxes.
“The president is saying that the Iranian people are all of a sudden going to topple their regime,” Taylor Greene continued:
Well, I don’t think the Iranian people are going to be toppling their regime when they’re getting blown apart by the United States and Israel in an unprovoked attack, and yes, it was unprovoked.
