LOS ANGELES.—Hyping the media-driven rift between Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gbbard, 44. and 79-year-old President Donald Trump, the fake news had a field day thinking that one of Trump’s high-profile Cabinet members was on thin ice. It all started when Gabbard testified in the House Intelligence Committee June 17 that Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had no active nuclear bomb program. “She’s wrong,” Trump told the press today. “I don’t care what she says,” Trump said, when asked about Gabbard’s assessment as Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard later clarified her remarks blaming the fake news for deliberately distorting her testimony. Gabbard never said the Iran could not build a bomb in short order, she only said, as far as the intel community is concerned, she not aware of any active bombing making program in Iran.
Trump’s point that the media deliberately distorts is than Iran could very well have the blueprint for a nuclear bomb. It wouldn’t, hypothetically speaking, take long for Iranian engineers to pack weapons grade uranium into a war head or crude nuclear bomb. Trump wasn’t happy with Gabbard posting a video criticizing “political elite and warmongers” for “fomenting” a conflict with Iran, a common refrain from Gabbard who criticized former President Joe Biden for funding proxy war with the Kremlin. Gabbard represents the isolationist side of MAGA Republicans, like former Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson. Carlson also issued his own warning about Trump getting involved in the Israeli-Iran war, now over a week old with no signs of letting up. Instead of figuring out what Gabbard was saying, the fake news immediately pitted her against Trump.
Trump has refused to say what he plans to do in Iran, keeping Iran guessing while he considers his options of joining Israel’s mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment program for the time being. Gabbard knows that Trump isn’t a warmonger, quite the opposite, doing everything possible to end the bloody three-year-old Ukraine War. Trump never imagined that the biggest obstacle to peace in Ukraine was 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky who decided he doesn’t want to cede any territory to Russia. Zelensky has given Trump fits, throwing a tantrum in the Oval Office Feb. 28 when he was supposed to sign a rare earth mineral deal with the United States. Zelensky stabbed Trump in the back at the Munich Security conference, telling European defense ministers that Trump could care less about European Security, prompting the EU to take Zelensky’s side.
Trump still believes, no matter how unlikely, that he can reach a diplomatic settlement on a new nuke deal with Iran. Iran has said it will not negotiate anything without Israel ending its military operation. Trump was asked whether he would ask Netanyahu to pause military operation for the purpose of opening up a diplomatic window. Trump said he wasn’t inclined to stop Israel’s military operations because they were winning the war. While it’s true that some of Iran’s ballistic missiles have pierced Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, it’s also true that Israel continues daily to degrade Iran’s military. “I think it’s very hard to make that request now,” Trump told reporters. “If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit hard to do that if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Trump doesn’t buy the comparison to former President George W. Bush who insisted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction [WMD]. “Well there were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there were. And that was somewhat pre-nuclear,” Trump said, explaining his opposition to the Iraq War before he got into politics. When it comes to his own policy, Trump wants no part of any protracted war with Iran. If he decides in his two-week window to help Israel with a B-2 Stealth Bomber strike on Iran’s underground nuclear site, he has no intent of putting boots on the ground. Bush, in 2003, decided to take over Iraq, deploying 500,000 U.S. troops to the region. Trump only wants to help Israel if they can’t make headway in Fordow. Gabbard and Carlson have leapt to conclusions about where Trump’s intervention, if any, would go.
Most nuclear experts can’t explain why Iran enriches uranium to 60%, unless the Ayatollah has his sights set on the nuclear bomb, as Netanyahu says. Whatever Gabbard thinks about warmongering in-or-out of the Trump White House, she needs to be more careful when she testifies in Congress to not show daylight between her position and Trump’s. Gabbard quickly backtracked and said she was on the same page as Trump when it came to any U.S. military intervention for Israel. “It was a nuclear age, but nothing like it is today,” Trump said about the situation in Iran. Trump doesn’t have much faith in the intel community that said Russia meddled in the 2017 election to help him beat former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. So when it comes to Gabbard talking about the intel community, there’s no bigger skeptic than Trump.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
