Donald Trump just ignored his own intelligence agencies to push the U.S. closer to another war in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, aboard Air Force One, Trump dismissed the official U.S. assessment that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. That report was shared by his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.
“I don’t care what she said, I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters.
That one sentence could be all it takes to justify launching military action.
It echoes the playbook from 2003, when George W. Bush’s administration pushed the lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But back then, the White House at least pretended to build a case with evidence. Trump isn’t bothering. He’s skipping all the steps and going straight to war based on a hunch.
This time, there are no vials, no satellite photos, no dramatic U.N. speeches. Just Trump saying Iran is a threat—and acting as if that’s enough.
The facts tell a different story.
In a March 26 testimony to Congress, Gabbard said plainly: “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
That’s the consensus of 18 U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump doesn’t care.
Instead of reviewing intelligence, Trump spent the past few days lashing out online. He told the 10 million residents of Tehran to evacuate, demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” and even threatened to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader.
“We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
It’s a stunning reversal for a man who once railed against the “forever wars.” In 2016, Trump shocked Republican primary voters by accusing his own party of lying about Iraq.
“I want to tell you. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none,” Trump said then.
Now he’s the one making claims without proof, ignoring experts, and putting U.S. troops at risk.
His march to war didn’t start this week. In 2018, Trump pulled the U.S. out of a working nuclear deal with Iran. That deal, signed in 2015 by Obama and five world powers, limited Iran’s uranium enrichment, allowed inspections, and kept the peace. Trump tore it up.
After that, Iran restarted enrichment. But even then, U.S. agencies still said they weren’t making a bomb.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been crying wolf about Iran for decades. In 1992, he said Iran was “three to five years” from a bomb. He said it again in 1995. And again in 2012—this time holding up a cartoon bomb at the U.N.
None of it ever came true.
But now, Netanyahu has acted. Israeli forces have bombed Iranian air defenses and nuclear sites. Trump appears to be following their lead.
Earlier this year, Netanyahu asked Trump for a powerful 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb to hit Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility. Trump reportedly refused—at first—and told Israel to wait for talks to finish.
Now, with negotiations dead, Trump has changed his tune.
There’s no new intelligence. Senior officials told The New York Times there’s nothing showing Iran has suddenly moved to build a bomb.
But the war has already started.
Trump may try to limit U.S. involvement and claim it’s just “support” for Israel. But the image of Trump as an anti-war outsider is gone. He’s now doing exactly what he once condemned: ignoring facts, ignoring experts, and using fear to justify war.
Watch MSNBC’s full breakdown of the situation below:
