Trump was swayed to embrace escalation between Israel and Iran after watching Fox News' coverage: Report
WASHINGTON, DC: For a long time now, President Donald Trump has opposed Israeli military action against Iran, preferring negotiations over bombing.
But in the past few days, Trump's approach appears to have taken a drastic turn, with him acknowledging that Israel’s heightened concerns over Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities were justified.
Now, The New York Times has dropped a bombshell report suggesting that the Fox News coverage might have been behind the president's changing stance.
How Fox News' coverage may have swayed Donald Trump to embrace escalation
Donald Trump had his options open, even the night before Israel first dropped a barrage of missiles on Iran. In a meeting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room, he told his advisers and allies that he still wanted to get a deal with Iran.
Even the administration's first formal statement following the strikes came not from Trump but Marco Rubio, who distanced the US from the Israeli effort and made no mention of standing by an ally, even though the US intelligence community was already providing support.
However, Trump’s public stance took a drastic turn on the next morning when he woke up to see Fox News “broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius.”
“And Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself,” according to the NYT report.
Trump started implying in phone conversations with reporters that he had been involved in the conflict on a larger scale behind the scenes than most people knew.
“Privately, he told some confidants that he was now leaning toward a more serious escalation: going along with Israel’s earlier request that the United States deliver powerful bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordo,” the report read.
Additionally, the report indicated that Trump is seriously considering deploying American planes to assist in refueling Israeli combat jets and to attempt to destroy Iran's deep-underground nuclear plant at Fordo using 30,000-pound bombs.
Donald Trump threatens Iran's supreme leader
Escalating his rhetoric against Iran, Donald Trump recently threatened the country’s supreme leaders, hinting that the US intelligence knows where he is hiding.
"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post — one in a series of statements he made before meeting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room about the conflict.
This came after Trump suggested that Iran would cross a red line if it attacked US assets in the Middle East. "We don't want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin," he stated, according to NPR.
He had previously told reporters that he did not believe Iran would target US assets in the region because of the risk of reprisal.
"Oh, we'll come down so hard. If they do anything to our people, we'll come down so hard. Then the gloves are off so beautifully," Trump said, adding, "I think they know not to touch our troops. We'll find out."
