President Trump is keeping the world guessing as he mulls whether to join Israel's escalating attacks on Iran aimed at destroying its nuclear program.
The president met with his national security aides in the Situation Room for a second consecutive day on Wednesday while openly weighing whether to strike Iran.
"Nobody knows what I'm going to do," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I like to make a final decision one second before it's due."
Israeli officials said Thursday they would intensify their strikes after Iran targeted a key hospital in southern Israel in an overnight missile attack. Israel, meanwhile, carried out strikes on Iran's Arak heavy water reactor.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump told senior aides he approved of an attack plan for Iran but was holding off on giving a final order to see if the country abandons its nuclear program. Bloomberg reports U.S. officials have drawn up plans for a possible strike on Iran in the coming days.
Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, as well as high-ranking generals. But Tehran's main nuclear facility, Fordow, is located in a mountain bunker that only the U.S. has the capability to strike.
The president has met with the National Security Council and spoken multiple times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday the Pentagon was providing options to Trump as he decides next steps.
"I'm not looking to fight," Trump later told reporters in the Oval Office. "But if it's a choice between them fighting or [Tehran] having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do. And maybe we don't have to fight."
"There's no way that you can allow, whether you have to fight or not, you can allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, because the entire world will blow up," he added. "Not going to let that happen."
▪ The Hill: The U.S. faces a sea of risk if Trump presses ahead with an Iran attack.
▪ The New York Times: A U.S. strike on Iran would bring risks at every turn, experts say.
Iran has readied missiles and equipment for strikes on U.S. bases in the region if Washington joins in the attacks. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said any U.S. military intervention in the conflict would bring "irreparable damage."
Asked if he thinks it is too late to negotiate a new deal to curb Iran's nuclear program, Trump said: "Nothing's too late."
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday issued an "urgent notice" for Americans in Israel, saying the Embassy in Jerusalem is helping arrange evacuations for citizens wanting to leave the country.
▪ The Hill: U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. military operations in the Middle East, has emerged as a key player in the Iran-Israel clashes.
▪ The Hill: How close is Iran to having a nuclear weapon?
▪ Reuters: The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain are set to hold nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva on Friday.
As Trump mulls his options, lawmakers in both parties are growing increasingly nervous about the possibility that the president could insert the U.S. directly into the Israel-Iran war — an issue that divides his own party and the MAGA movement.
An interview between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and conservative pundit Tucker Carlson is drawing attention to the split between the GOP's more interventionist and isolationist wings. Carlson and Cruz debated Trump's foreign policy, with the former Fox News host criticizing the GOP senator for not knowing the population and ethnic makeup of Iran as he advocated for U.S. intervention.
"You're a senator who's calling for an overthrow of the government and you don't know anything about the country!" Carlson told Cruz at one point in the taped conversation.
On Capitol Hill, there is broad support in both parties for Israel, but there is also fear about getting drawn into a larger war in the Middle East.
Close Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is urging the president to go "all in" on a military response for regime change, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has urged the U.S. to stay out of the conflict.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said U.S. officials "need to be contemplative and look at all the ramifications."
"I just think … slow it down if you can, make sure you're making the right decision," Capito said. "I trust the president to make the right decision, but it's tough."
"I'm uncomfortable," said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who noted Trump campaigned on keeping the U.S. out of foreign conflicts.
"These decisions are always a function of assessing risk accurately and your reward," Hickenlooper said.
Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed frustration about being kept in the dark about the president's thought process.
"I'm a member, as you said, of the Gang of Eight, and we're supposed to know," he said Wednesday afternoon on CNN. "I have no foggy idea what this administration's plans are or what the foreign policy is vis-a-vis Iran."
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