Your cut-out-and-keep guide to Trump’s seven reasons for striking Iran, from nukes to the presidential gut
Every delay has consequences.
Welcome to Wednesday’s Washington Secrets. Today, we offer a handy list of the shifting reasons for Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran, and we explain why Rubio is ready to “unleash Chiang” …
You could hear the irritation as Marco Rubio addressed reporters, contempt dripping from every word.
“Listen, let me explain to you guys this in simple English, OK?” the secretary of state said. “Iran is run by lunatics … religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons.
“They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles, and drones, and terrorism. That the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things.”
Iran is weaker than it has ever been. And the world will be a safer place when the clerics no longer have drones, missiles, or any chance of building nuclear weapons, he said.
In so doing, he tied together the seven shifting reasons that Donald Trump and his senior officials have given for launching military strikes on Iran. And put a bow on top.
Consider this your cut-out-and-keep guide to the rolling roster of justifications — some contradictory, some illegal — that have sown confusion among reporters.
1. Nuclear weapons
“It’s a very simple message: They will never have a nuclear weapon.” And so was delivered one of the most decisive lines from Trump’s video message announcing Operation Epic Fury. Couldn’t be simpler than that, eh?
2. Imminent threat
Never one to avoid a lily ungilded or an oval-shaped office ungoldened, Trump layered on the justifications in that short video. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” he said, perhaps aware that imminent threats carry the advantage of offering a legal defense for a military assault.
3. Regime change
But then it gets trickier. “When we are finished, take over your government,” he told Iranians. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.” Wars of regime change are anathema to the anti-neocons in the Trump base. All week, officials have hemmed and hawed about whether the conflict is really about dumping the clerics. Instead, one big-brained administration-adjacent figure told Secrets that it is about creating the conditions for regime change rather than regime change itself. Whatever that means.
4. Proxy armies and terrorism
Trump emphasized a fourth point during a Medal of Honor ceremony at …
Every delay has consequences.
Welcome to Wednesday’s Washington Secrets. Today, we offer a handy list of the shifting reasons for Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran, and we explain why Rubio is ready to “unleash Chiang” …
You could hear the irritation as Marco Rubio addressed reporters, contempt dripping from every word.
“Listen, let me explain to you guys this in simple English, OK?” the secretary of state said. “Iran is run by lunatics … religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons.
“They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles, and drones, and terrorism. That the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things.”
Iran is weaker than it has ever been. And the world will be a safer place when the clerics no longer have drones, missiles, or any chance of building nuclear weapons, he said.
In so doing, he tied together the seven shifting reasons that Donald Trump and his senior officials have given for launching military strikes on Iran. And put a bow on top.
Consider this your cut-out-and-keep guide to the rolling roster of justifications — some contradictory, some illegal — that have sown confusion among reporters.
1. Nuclear weapons
“It’s a very simple message: They will never have a nuclear weapon.” And so was delivered one of the most decisive lines from Trump’s video message announcing Operation Epic Fury. Couldn’t be simpler than that, eh?
2. Imminent threat
Never one to avoid a lily ungilded or an oval-shaped office ungoldened, Trump layered on the justifications in that short video. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” he said, perhaps aware that imminent threats carry the advantage of offering a legal defense for a military assault.
3. Regime change
But then it gets trickier. “When we are finished, take over your government,” he told Iranians. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.” Wars of regime change are anathema to the anti-neocons in the Trump base. All week, officials have hemmed and hawed about whether the conflict is really about dumping the clerics. Instead, one big-brained administration-adjacent figure told Secrets that it is about creating the conditions for regime change rather than regime change itself. Whatever that means.
4. Proxy armies and terrorism
Trump emphasized a fourth point during a Medal of Honor ceremony at …
Your cut-out-and-keep guide to Trump’s seven reasons for striking Iran, from nukes to the presidential gut
Every delay has consequences.
Welcome to Wednesday’s Washington Secrets. Today, we offer a handy list of the shifting reasons for Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran, and we explain why Rubio is ready to “unleash Chiang” …
You could hear the irritation as Marco Rubio addressed reporters, contempt dripping from every word.
“Listen, let me explain to you guys this in simple English, OK?” the secretary of state said. “Iran is run by lunatics … religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons.
“They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles, and drones, and terrorism. That the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things.”
Iran is weaker than it has ever been. And the world will be a safer place when the clerics no longer have drones, missiles, or any chance of building nuclear weapons, he said.
In so doing, he tied together the seven shifting reasons that Donald Trump and his senior officials have given for launching military strikes on Iran. And put a bow on top.
Consider this your cut-out-and-keep guide to the rolling roster of justifications — some contradictory, some illegal — that have sown confusion among reporters.
1. Nuclear weapons
“It’s a very simple message: They will never have a nuclear weapon.” And so was delivered one of the most decisive lines from Trump’s video message announcing Operation Epic Fury. Couldn’t be simpler than that, eh?
2. Imminent threat
Never one to avoid a lily ungilded or an oval-shaped office ungoldened, Trump layered on the justifications in that short video. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” he said, perhaps aware that imminent threats carry the advantage of offering a legal defense for a military assault.
3. Regime change
But then it gets trickier. “When we are finished, take over your government,” he told Iranians. “It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.” Wars of regime change are anathema to the anti-neocons in the Trump base. All week, officials have hemmed and hawed about whether the conflict is really about dumping the clerics. Instead, one big-brained administration-adjacent figure told Secrets that it is about creating the conditions for regime change rather than regime change itself. Whatever that means.
4. Proxy armies and terrorism
Trump emphasized a fourth point during a Medal of Honor ceremony at …
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