Scarborough recalls warning Trump, ‘Iran is not Venezuela’ before conflict

WASHINGTON, DC: Recalling a phone call with President Donald Trump before the conflict with Iran, popular television host Joe Scarborough revealed on Tuesday that he had warned Trump against jumping into war with the Islamic Republic.

While a breakthrough in the ongoing US-Iran peace talks appeared close, fears of renewed escalation surged after the US military said it carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, accusing Iranian boats of laying mines in the strategic waterway.

Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, May 26, disclosed that he had advised Trump to avoid entering a war with Iran in a private phone call.

“Let me tell you what experts told everybody about Iran — don’t go!” Scarborough said in a scorching commentary on Morning Joe.

“Don’t go into Iran! Because if you go into Iran, they’ll cut off the strait immediately! … People have been saying it since the early 1980s. You can’t do it because they’ll cut off this strait. And yet they did it anyway."

"So the so-called experts were warning him — David Ignatius, every day on this show, every day on this show leading up to the war, what did he say? ‘Mr. President, with all due respect, sir, Iran is not Venezuela,"

Joe reveals telling Trump, ‘Iran is not Venezuela’

Joe further revealed that he personally appealed to the Commander-in-Chief against entering war. “I told him on the phone, ‘Iran is not Venezuela!'' Scarborough said.

"Don’t listen to Lindsey Graham! Don’t do it! Iran is not Venezuela!’ But he thought it was. Experts told him it wasn’t,” Joe said.

Scarborough continued saying, “If he had talked to anybody on the Iran desk in the CIA, they would have said, ‘No, this is a nightmare. You will get entangled in a quagmire there. Don’t go.”

Scarborough further suggested that if Trump had received a call from experts or had taken advice from experts, he wouldn’t have entered the war.

“And so, experts… sometimes, actually, you need to pick up the phone and call one or two of them, because they will stop you from getting involved in what Bob Kagan, an expert, says could be one of the greatest military defeats in the past century,” Scarborough added.

US strikes Iran in ‘self-defense’

According to US Central Command, American forces targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats in southern Iran after what officials described as direct threats to US troops and military aircraft operating near the region.

“US forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Capt Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said.

“Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines,” Hawkins added, while stressing that “US Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”