Donald Trump attempted to counter a simmering anti-Israel backlash in Congress and among his own Maga supporters on Tuesday by denying suggestions that he had been bounced into attacking Iran because Israel had already decided to do so.
Amid growing criticism from opponents and allies, Trump rebuffed claims that he had struck Iran only because Israel had forced his hand, a suspicion fueled by comments made by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
Asked whether Israel had pushed him into launching military action, Trump told reporters: “No. I might have forced their hand. We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”
Senate Democrats reacted furiously after Rubio suggested on a visit to Capitol Hill that Saturday’s strikes were driven by the need to pre-empt Iranian retaliation against US interests in response to Israeli attacks that Washington knew was coming.
Trump has provided fluid reasoning for why he ordered attacks last Saturday, in concert with Israeli strikes, one of which killed Iran’s most powerful figure, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He has also sent mixed signals about whether he is willing to deploy US forces in a “boots on the ground” capacity, a decision that would almost certainly further inflame domestic criticism.
Trump denies Israel forced US’s hand over Iran strikes
Trump has provided fluid reasoning for why he ordered attacks last Saturday, in concert with Israeli strikes, one of which killed Iran’s most powerful figure, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He has also sent mixed signals about whether he is willing to deploy US forces in a “boots on the ground” capacity, a decision that would almost certainly further inflame domestic criticism.
US embassy in Riyadh hit by Iranian drones as Israeli troops enter southern Lebanon
Iranian drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh as Tehran continued to launch waves of retaliatory strikes at the Gulf and Israel, while Israeli soldiers began operating in southern Lebanon on the fourth day of an increasingly regional war in the Middle East.
The drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh caused a minor fire, prompting the diplomatic mission to tell Americans to distance themselves from the compound. The attack followed an earlier Iranian drone strike on the US embassy in Kuwait, as Iran continued to target US bases, facilities and personnel in Arab Gulf states.
US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges
US military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group. In one complaint to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, viewed by the Guardian, the complainant said that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ”.
Showdown over datacenter politics at heart of North Carolina primary
A North Carolina congressional primary on Tuesday is an early test of datacenter politics – a fight increasingly shaping elections nationwide.
In the Durham-area fourth district, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is seeking her third term against progressive challenger Nida Allam, a Durham county commissioner she defeated in 2022.
Texas votes in high-stakes primaries in test of appetite for change under Trump
The first votes of the 2026 midterm cycle will be cast on Tuesday, with a pair of high-stakes US Senate primaries in Texas that will test both parties’ appetite for political change in the Trump era.
Trump rebukes Starmer over UK refusal to back strikes on Iran
Donald Trump has criticised Keir Starmer again over the UK’s refusal to aid the offensive strikes on Iran, saying the “relationship is obviously not what it was”.
The British PM had issued his strongest rebuke yet of Trump’s action in Iran, saying the UK did not believe in “regime change from the skies” and defended his decision not to allow the use of British bases to conduct the strikes.
What else happened today:
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Nancy Mace, a Republican representative, is under investigation by the House ethics committee over allegations that she may have improperly claimed more than $9,000 in reimbursements meant to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress.
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The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, on Tuesday would not retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”, while also claiming that agents do not abide by quotas for arrests.
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Howard Lutnick, Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, has agreed to appear voluntarily before the House committee on oversight and government reform as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network, the committee’s chair announced on Tuesday.
OpenAI is amending its hastily arranged deal to supply artificial intelligence to the US Department of War (DoW) after the ChatGPT owner’s chief executive admitted it looked “opportunistic and sloppy”. -
The US justice department abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and decided it would defend executive orders made by Donald Trump to try to penalize law firms that represented clients or causes the president did not like.
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A Minnesota state prosecutor announced an investigation Monday that may lead to charges against federal officers, including Greg Bovino, for misconduct during an immigration enforcement crackdown.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Monday 2 March.
