Key Points and Summary: President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against Iran on Monday night, posting an ominous warning on Truth Social for everyone to “immediately evacuate Tehran” and declaring that “IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
The statement came after Israel’s massive air assault on Iranian nuclear sites last week and as Trump made an early exit from the G7 summit in Canada.
This has fueled speculation about deeper US involvement, despite reports that Trump has told Israel he opposes any plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Trump also publicly disputed his own DNI’s assessment that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
Trump Might Soon Bomb Iran? It Could Happen
Is President Trump about to involve the U.S. more deeply in the growing conflict between Israel and Iran?
The world is watching, and so is a MAGA base that, in large numbers, wants no part of any protracted new war.
On Monday night, U.S. time, which is the middle of the night in Iran, Trump issued something of an ominous warning on Truth Social, in which he stated that Iran “should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign, before Trump demanded that everyone in the capital city of Tehran evacuate.
“What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” the president said on the social network. “I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
Tehran has a population of around 10 million people.
After that, per Axios, Trump made an early exit from the G7 summit in Canada to “attend to many important matters.”
The early exit from the summit means Trump will miss planned meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
“American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed. We will defend American interests,” White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said after the Trump statement, per Axios.
The AP reported Monday that the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that Israel’s strikes on Iran’s Natanz enrichment site have had “direct impacts.”
Will It Be War?
Trump has tried to create the impression that the U.S. wants to make a deal with Iran, possibly to get it to give up any hope of having a nuclear weapons program.
That was the premise behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement reached in 2015 between Iran and several Western powers.
Trump, however, pulled the U.S. from that agreement during his first term.
Trump ran again in 2024 because he had started no new wars during his first presidency. In essentially all of his presidential runs, he argued that he would avoid wars, while his opponents, whether Democratic or Republican, would launch new ones.
Escalating U.S. involvement in a new armed conflict in Iran, a country that, despite a long and complicated history, the U.S. has avoided full-on wars with in the past, would seem to go against all of those pledges.
Meanwhile, CBS News reported this week that U.S. support for Israel’s attack on Iran has some limits: Trump has told Israel that it does not have the green light for a plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days that killing the ayatollah is “not a good idea,” the CBS report said.
How Close is Iran to a Nuclear Weapon?
Per CNN, Trump this week disputed the conclusions of his own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, about Iran’s nuclear capability. Gabbard had testified, just three months ago, that the intelligence community “continues to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
CNN, citing intelligence sources, appeared to side with Gabbard.
“Not only was Iran not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, it was also up to three years away from being able to produce and deliver one to a target of its choosing, according to four people familiar with the assessment,” CNN said in a report Tuesday.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having it,” Trump told reporters Monday, referencing Gabbard.
Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is predicated on the notion that Iran is very close, possibly weeks or days away, from attaining nuclear weapons capability.
About the Author:
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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