White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that the US launched the war with Iran because President Trump had a “feeling” that Iranian forces were going to attack first.
Leavitt made the comments when pressed on the claims that there was an “imminent threat” facing the US that justified the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran.
She listed a series of talking points about how Iran posed a “threat” to the US and said that the “president had a feeling, again, based on fact, that Iran was going to strike the United States, was going to strike our assets in the region, and he made a determination to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all of those reasons.”
President Trump made similar comments a day earlier when he was asked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying that one reason why the US launched the war was that Israel was planning to attack on its own and that the US assessed Iran could retaliate with attacks on US bases.
The president denied the idea that the US attacked because of Israel’s plans, suggesting he may have “forced Israel’s hand” because he “thought” Iran was going to attack first, though Pentagon officials told Congress that there was no indication Iran was planning to strike the US or Israel without being attacked first.
On Wednesday, Trump came up with a new reason for starting the war, making the clearly false claim that if he didn’t attack, Iran could have acquired a nuclear weapon within two weeks despite his insistence that the June 2025 airstrikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. “If we didn’t hit within two weeks, they would’ve had a nuclear weapon,” he said.
