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As President Donald Trump gets closer to his deadline for Iran to make a deal, very few in his circle — even his closest confidants — can be sure of his next move, but all agree that his threat to escalate the war should be taken seriously.
Trump has spent days slowly ratcheting up threats to launch widespread attacks against Iran, promising to destroy bridges and power plants across the country should Tehran fail to make a deal with the US. On Tuesday morning, he took that threat a step further, posting a warning: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Yet as he’s done throughout the five-week-plus conflict, Trump has also left himself a path to walk it all back. He told Fox News that if negotiations move forward with Iran, tonight’s deadline “could change.” That would mark the fourth time that Trump has shifted a timeline as it relates to Iran.
“It could be like a crazy, ‘let’s just throw this out there just to see,’” said one person close to the White House. “But also it’s strategic ambiguity that throws so many people off.”
Trump has spent weeks building up military assets in the region, even sending Special Operations teams to the area, reinforcing the seriousness with which his allies are viewing his threat to Iran’s civilian infrastructure. While experts have described Trump’s rhetoric as edging closer to potential war crimes, he has dismissed the prospect; he told reporters on Monday that “the war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Another person close to the White House underscored how soberly the president’s comments are getting perceived by those in his network by theorizing about the possibility, however far-fetched, that nuclear weapons might come into play. (Trump himself dismissed the possibility of Israel using such a method back in March.)
“The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States. Only the president knows where things stand and what he will do,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
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Plenty of Republicans are uncomfortable with the reality that Trump may, in just a few hours, more deeply embed the US in Iran. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told conservative journalist John Solomon on Monday that he hopes and prays it’s just “bluster.”
“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure,” Johnson said. “We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”
But congressional Republicans have also shown little interest in trying to restrain Trump. Only Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has supported Democratic efforts to cease US hostilities overseas in recent Senate votes, even after eight GOP senators supported a similar effort in 2020.
There’s a big difference this time: The US is actively at war with Iran, unlike in 2020.
“I don’t believe most Republicans would be on board with that,” said one GOP lawmaker. “What happens if we were to just pull the plug … does that put our Gulf partners in a really precarious situation? Is that dangerous for the region? Is that dangerous, potentially for Americans?”
There’s also the question of how long Americans can tolerate the ongoing war, which has resulted in rising gas prices that the administration insists is short-term.
Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, was a lonely voice of dissent among sitting congressional Republicans on Tuesday afternoon. He posted on X that, while he has supported Trump’s war with Iran, the US “has always conducted military operations for just causes and through just and moral means. This must continue in the future; otherwise we forfeit our legitimacy to lead the world.
“So, let me be clear: I do not support the destruction of a ‘whole civilization,’” he added, in direct response to Trump’s Truth Social post. “That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America.”
The first person close to the White House summed up the concerns within Trump’s party: “For a lot of people, even on our side, that are giving the president a lot of benefit of the doubt, it makes you wonder: Where are we going? How much more of this do we have to endure?”
Notable
- Pakistan’s prime minister is asking for two more weeks of diplomacy, AP reports.
Nicholas Wu contributed.