Trump caught between powerful forces

It is now Tuesday, June 17 2025, 

and we have spent the last few days, 

especially since Israel launched its massive attack on Iran last Friday, June 13, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_War

watching Trump gyrating between various positions regarding this conflict.

It is clear that various powerful forces are working on him, 

trying to get him either 

to stay out of what is for now only a war between Israel and Iran, 

or to get the U.S. involved.

This issue, of the forces acting on Trump, 

is discussed in some detail here:

"How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel

President Trump spent the first months of his term holding back Israel’s push for an assault on Iran’s nuclear program. With the war underway, his posture has gyrated as he weighs sending in the U.S. military."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/us/politics/trump-iran-israel-nuclear-talks.html

"over the last several weeks, it became increasingly apparent to Trump administration officials that they might not be able to stop Mr. Netanyahu this time, 

according to interviews with key players in the administration’s deliberations over how to respond and others familiar with their thinking. 

At the same time, Mr. Trump was getting impatient with Iran over the slow pace of negotiations and beginning to conclude that the talks might go nowhere.

Contrary to Israeli claims, senior administration officials were unaware of any new intelligence showing that the Iranians were rushing to build a nuclear bomb — 

a move that would justify a pre-emptive strike. 

But seeing they would most likely not be able to deter Mr. Netanyahu and were no longer driving events, Mr. Trump’s advisers weighed alternatives.

At one end of the spectrum was 

sitting back and doing nothing and then deciding on next steps once it became clear how much Iran had been weakened by the attack. 

At the other end was 

joining Israel in the military assault, possibly to the point of forcing regime change in Iran.

Mr. Trump chose a middle course, 

offering Israel as-yet undisclosed support from the U.S. intelligence community to carry out its attack 

and then turning up the pressure on Tehran to give immediate concessions at the negotiating table or face continued military onslaught.

Five days after Israel launched its attack, Mr. Trump’s posture continues to gyrate. 

The administration at first distanced itself from the strikes, 

then grew more publicly supportive as Israel’s initial military success became evident.

Now Mr. Trump is seriously considering sending American aircraft in to help refuel Israeli combat jets and to try to take out Iran’s deep-underground nuclear site at Fordo with 30,000-pound bombs — 

a step that would mark a stunning turnabout from his opposition just two months ago to any military action while there was still a chance of a diplomatic solution."

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2025-06-17

Clash between Trump and his DNI Tulsi Gabbard 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/17/gabbard-trump-00411685

"Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard tweeted a cryptic, three-minute video warning that 

<B>“political elite and warmongers” are “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers”</b> — 

and that the world is “on the brink of nuclear annihilation.”

...

Her post came a few days after 

<B>Israel hawks met with Trump at the White House to lobby him to support Israel’s attacks on Iran.</b> 

In the eyes of Trump and some close to him, 

Gabbard was warning him not to greenlight Israel attacking Iran.

...

Trump’s reaction to the video — which has not been previously reported — 

underscores a widening gap between a president on the brink of potentially joining Israel’s war, 

and his anti-interventionist intelligence chief, 

who in the past has been adamantly against the U.S. engaging in new foreign conflicts.

Indeed, the man Gabbard endorsed on the campaign trail — 

who spoke of ending the Ukraine-Russia War on Day 1 and ushering in a new era of peace — 

is striking a different tone from her 

now that he’s sitting behind the Resolute desk.

...

The apparent divide has been a source of gossip among people on both sides of the ideological spectrum who are closely following the rising tensions in the Middle East. 

Israel hawks like conservative talk show host Mark Levin have mocked Gabbard’s assessment, 

suggesting that U.S. intelligence under her leadership has been flat-out incorrect."

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What Gabbard actually said in March 2025:

"The intelligence community, Gabbard said in March, 

“continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon 

and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

[But]

“In the past year, we’ve seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decisionmaking apparatus,” Gabbard said. 

“Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.” "

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