President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for Iran to make an “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” to Israel and threatened Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, describing him as an “easy target.” Trump’s saber rattling comes following air strikes against Iran by Israel, threatening to expand the ongoing war in Gaza.
Trump also wrote, “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” rhetorically involving the United States in the conflict.
Yet despite the seriousness of the international situation he must deal with, Trump reportedly is having a full-blown feud with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, whose position is key to handling the problem at hand.
On June 10, Gabbard posted a strange video warning about the possibility of nuclear war. Politico reported on Tuesday that the video was not authorized by the administration and that Trump was “incensed” when he saw it.
The video was apparently meant to sway Trump away from becoming involved in the Israel-Iran conflict and came a few days after he met with a group led by Fox News crackpot Mark Levin advocating for military intervention.
“Many took that video as trying to correct the administration’s position,” a senior administration official told the outlet.
Trump openly rebuked Gabbard on Tuesday when reporters asked him about her March testimony before Congress where she said Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump said. “I think they were very close to having it.”
Gabbard was also reportedly left out of a June 8 meeting between Trump and senior national security officials at Camp David where the Middle Eastern situation was discussed.
The infighting with Gabbard adds more fuel to the fire created by Trump’s haphazard response to the situation.
Related |Trump thinks his Iran freakout and ensuing panic were no big deal
Trump made a panicked post calling for the immediate evacuation of Tehran on Monday, only to tell reporters the next day there wasn’t any threat and that he just wanted “people to be safe.” Trump also suddenly left the G7 summit in Canada over the weekend, raising concerns that he was escalating American involvement in the conflict.
Trump chose Gabbard for her role despite her past as an apologist for authoritarians like Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. She has used her position to pursue conspiracy theories and Trump’s political opposition. But when it comes to a world crisis, she and her boss are apparently not on the same page.
Millions of lives need competence and steadiness at these positions—but Trump and Gabbard are not providing it