How Trump’s Advisers Felt About Going to War With Iran

Of all the people on Trump's team, Donald Trump was the most hawkish when it came to Iran.

He decided to go to war on a gut feeling, period, full stop.

We did extensive interviews to find out how he made that decision.

On February 11th, Benjamin Netanyahu pitched the idea of joint Israel-US strikes against Iran.

He lays out a very aggressive campaign to dismantle Iran's weapons systems and then he also lays out some scenarios for regime change. President Trump listened to this and he said, sounds good to me. But what happened next was actually in some ways more interesting. Overnight US intelligence analysts very quickly went to work. The head of the CIA uses one word to describe the assessment of Netanyahu's regime change

scenarios. Farcical.

Within the next few weeks, there were a number of discussions about what might come next. There was not consensus.

These three Trump advisors showed just how varied the opinions were in the administration. The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, thought that this was a really good idea.

And it's not a surprise. He was very much chosen for the idea that he believes in flexing US military muscle.

Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, was, I would say, skeptical about a full-scale war, would prefer to continue with a maximum pressure campaign, but was also skeptical that the Iranians would agree to a deal. So he was somewhat ambivalent. The most actively opposed was Vice President J.D.

Vance.

He laid out various reasons why this could be complicated, from depleted munitions to the position it would leave the US in going forward.

That it could lead to regional chaos, that it would break apart his coalition. Many of his voters would see that as a betrayal.

On February 26, President Trump had a final go-no-go meeting with his team in the Situation

Room. Trump is sitting around the table with his inner circle. It's a very small group.

He asked what people thought.

And Vance starts by saying, well, you know, I think it's a bad idea, but if you do this, I'll support you.

Pete Hegseth remained where he was, believing that Iran was going to have to be dealt with

anyway. going to have to be dealt with anyway, might as well do it now. And Rubio says, if the goal is regime change, we shouldn't do it. But if the goal is to degrade Iran's capabilities to wage war, their missile program, that's a goal that we can achieve.

At the end, when President Trump wanted to go forward,

almost everyone deferred to the president's gut instincts. They've watched him survive being indicted, being convicted, being shot.

They had seen him beat the odds so many times that it affects how they look at things and what might be doable. They had seen him beat the odds so many times that it affects how they look at things and what might be doable.

And at 3.38pm the next day, Donald Trump ordered the start of the Iran war.