Latest news with #TulsiGabbard
Russia Today
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Pentagon & US national intelligence chiefs sidelined from Iran‑Israel discussions
President Donald Trump has excluded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from high-level discussions on the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict, NBC News and The Washington Post have reported, citing senior administration officials. Gabbard's sidelining, according to NBC, reportedly stems from her public and internal pushback against the official US and Israeli narrative that Tehran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Hegseth has also been edged out of operational discussions, with The Washington Post reporting that two four-star generals overseeing the deployment of additional US military assets in the Middle East have taken the lead. Trump is now said to be relying on a smaller, more experienced 'Tier One' advisory group – comprising Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chair General Dan Caine – which is now reportedly shaping US policy on Iran, rather than the traditional civilian defense and intelligence leadership. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has denied the reports, insisting that Hegseth is 'speaking with the President multiple times a day each day and has been with the President in the Situation Room this week.' Gabbard also told reporters that she and the president were 'on the same page.' Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign against Iran last week, claiming Tehran was close to producing a nuclear weapon. Trump will decide whether to join the Israeli campaign 'within the next two weeks,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday. However, US intelligence still assesses that Iran, while it has stockpiled enriched uranium, has not taken concrete steps toward developing nuclear weapons, according to Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. This view has remained unchanged since March, when Gabbard told Congress that the US intelligence community 'does not believe Iran is building a nuclear weapon.' Trump contradicted this assessment on Tuesday, stating that Iran was 'weeks away' from obtaining a bomb and dismissing Gabbard's remarks by saying, 'I don't care what she said.' A former Democratic congresswoman and Iraq War veteran, Gabbard has long been critical of the US intelligence community she now oversees, and she was known for supporting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Her release of a video warning about the horrors of nuclear war following a visit to Hiroshima reportedly annoyed Trump's advisers. Her absence from a key June 8 meeting at Camp David on Iran policy has fueled speculation about her diminished influence, with multiple sources telling NBC that she has not participated in recent strategic discussions.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Grows Pissed at Tulsi Gabbard as Israel-Iran Conflict Worsens
President Trump is reportedly furious with Tulsi Gabbard after the director of national intelligence posted a professionally produced, three-minute-long X video last week referencing past nuclear disasters. Gabbard's post went mostly unnoticed at the time, but now seems like a clear rebuke of U.S. support for Israel's war on Iran. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,' Gabbard says in the video as ominous music swells in the background. 'And perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to. So it's up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust.' The president was apparently not a fan of Gabbard's unauthorized rebuke of the direction his administration was leaning on Israel, as multiple war hawks visited Trump just days before Gabbard posted the video. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump stated on Tuesday when asked about Gabbard's video on Air Force One. 'I think they were very close to having a weapon.' 'I don't think he dislikes Tulsi as a person.… But certainly the video made him not super hot on her … and he doesn't like it when people are off message,' a senior administration official told Politico. The beef between Trump and Gabbard shows that the MAGA split between blind military support for Israel versus 'America First' anti-interventionists, like Gabbard, is much more than just an online spat. There is a real ideological schism on display with regard to Trump's deference to Israel's wars, and even die-hard Trump supporters have begun raising their voices against another endless war in the Middle East—something Trump promised to stop during his campaign.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Deliberately Leaves Two Key People Out of Iran Plan Convos
Two of the highest-ranking military Cabinet members have essentially been cut off as Trump teeters on the edge of joining Israel's war on Iran, according to a report from The Washington Post. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, two people who you'd expect to be closely involved with the potential wartime situation, have been kicked to the curb in favor of his 'tier one' advisory group on Iran, which includes Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine. While Israel has bombarded Iran based on unsubstantiated nuclear weapons claims, Trump has yet to confirm U.S.-led military strikes on Iran, which could lead to global fallout. Reports Wednesday indicated that Trump has approved strikes but not yet given the final green light. Hegseth has struggled to establish trust and consistency while leading the Pentagon, a job he was nearly disqualified from in the first place. Now it seems clear that the president does not take him seriously as a leader or confidant. 'Nobody is talking to Hegseth,' one official told the Post. 'There is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all.' Trump has made his distaste for Gabbard much clearer, especially after she posted a three-minute-long X video last week that went mostly unnoticed at the time but now appears to be an obvious rebuke of U.S. support for Israel's war on Iran. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump stated on Tuesday when asked about Gabbard's video, on Air Force One. 'I think they were very close to having a weapon.' While Gabbard's booting from the inner circle seems to be ideology-based, Hegseth's shunning feels like a competency and trust issue. Either way, the country's two top defense leaders are not involved in discussions around starting a massive war, which points to a troubling level of internal discord and disunity, especially just months into Trump's first year as president.
Russia Today
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Israel's war on Iran is not about nuclear weapons
The claim that has been adopted by the United States, Israel and its European partners, that the attack on Iran was a 'pre-emptive' attempt to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, is demonstrably false. It holds about as much weight as the allegations against Iraq's Saddam Hussein in 2003 and this war of aggression is just as illegal. For the best part of four decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been claiming that Iran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Yet, every single attempt to strike a deal which would bring more monitoring and restrictions to Iran's nuclear program has been systematically dismantled by Israel and its powerful lobbying groups in Western capitals. In order to properly assess Israel's attack on Iran, we have to establish the facts in this case. The Israeli leadership claim to have launched a pre-emptive strike, but have presented no evidence to support their allegations that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Simply stating this does not serve as proof, it is a claim, similar to how the US told the world Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Back in March, the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee that the intelligence community 'continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.' On top of this, Iran was actively participating in indirect negotiations with the US to reach a new version of the 2015 Nuclear Deal. Donald Trump announced Washington would unilaterally withdraw from the agreement in 2018, instead pursuing a 'maximum pressure' sanctions campaign at the behest of Israel. Despite the claims of Netanyahu and Trump that Iran was violating the Nuclear Deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report which stated Iran was in full compliance with the deal at the time. If you trace back every conversation with neo-conservatives, Israeli war hawks and Washington-based think tanks, their opposition to the Obama-era Nuclear Deal always ends up spiraling into the issues of Iran's ballistic missile program and its support for regional non-State actors. Israeli officials frequently make claims about Iran producing a nuclear weapon in 'years', 'months' or even 'weeks,' this has become almost second nature. Yet their main issue has always been with Iran's support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, who strive for the creation of a Palestinian State. Proof of this all is simple. Israel, by itself, cannot destroy Iran's vast nuclear program. It is not clear the US can destroy it either, even if it enters the war. An example of the US' ineffectiveness at penetrating Iranian-style bunkers, built into mountainous ranges, as many of Iran's nuclear facilities are, was demonstrated through the American failure to destroy missile storage bases in Yemen with its bunker-buster munitions, which were dropped from B-2 bombers. Almost immediately after launching his war on Iran, Netanyahu sent out a message in English to the Iranian people, urging them to overthrow their government in an attempt to trigger civil unrest. The Israeli prime minister has since all but announced that regime change is his true intention, claiming that the operation 'may lead' to regime change. Israel's own intelligence community and military elites have also expressed their view that their air force alone is not capable of destroying the Iranian nuclear program. So why then launch this war, if it is not possible to achieve the supposed reason it was 'pre-emptively' launched? There are two possible explanations: The first is that the Israeli prime minister has launched this assault on Iran as a final showdown in his 'seven front war,' with which he hopes to conclude the regional conflict through a deadly exchange that will ultimately inflict damage on both sides. In this scenario, the desired outcome would be to conclude the war with the claim that Netanyahu has succeeded at destroying or has significantly degraded Iran's nuclear program. He would also throw in claims, like we already see him making, that huge amounts of Iranian missiles and drones were eliminated. This would also make the opening Israeli strike, which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and nuclear scientists, make sense. It would all be the perfect blend of propaganda to sell a victory narrative. On the other hand, the assumption would be that Tehran would also claim victory. Then both sides are able to show the results to their people and tensions cool down for a while. If you are to read what the Washington-based think-tanks are saying about this, most notably The Heritage Foundation, they speak about the ability to contain the war. The second explanation, which could be an added bonus that the Israelis and US are hoping could come as a result of their efforts, is that this is a full-scale regime change war that is designed to rope in the US. Israel's military prestige was greatly damaged in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and since that time there has been no victory achieved over any enemy. Hamas is still operating in Gaza and is said to have just as many fighters as when the war began, Hezbollah was dealt significant blows but is still very much alive, while Yemen's Ansarallah has only increased its strength. This is an all round stunning defeat of the Israeli military and an embarrassment to the US. As is well known, Iran is the regional power that backs all of what is called the Axis of Resistance. Without it, groups like Hezbollah and Hamas would be significantly degraded. Evidently, armed resistance to Israeli occupation will never end as long as occupied people exist and live under oppressive rule, but destroying Iran would be devastating for the regional alliance against Israel. The big question however, is whether regime change is even possible. There is a serious question mark here and it seems much more likely that this will end up on a slippery slope to nuclear war instead. What makes the Israeli-US claim that this war is somehow pre-emptive, for which there is no proof at all, all the more ridiculous of a notion, is that if anything, Iran may now actually rush to acquire a nuclear weapon for defensive purposes. If they can't even trust the Israelis not to bomb them with US backing, while negotiations were supposed to be happening, then how can a deal ever be negotiated? Even in the event that the US joins and deals a major blow to the Iranian nuclear program, it doesn't mean that Iran will simply abandon the program altogether. Instead, Tehran could simply end up rebuilding and acquiring the bomb years later. Another outcome of this war could end up being Israeli regime change, which also appears as if it could now be on the table.
Black America Web
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
President Trump, Tulsi Gabbard Reportedly Clash Over Iran-Related Nuclear War Tweet
President Donald Trump and the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, once appeared to be in lockstep when it came to foreign policy. However, there are rumblings in Washington that Tulsi Gabbard's recent actions on social media have angered President Trump, showing a potential fracture within the administration. Politico published a report highlighting the tensions between Gabbard and Trump that came in the wake of the rising conflict between Iran and Israel. On June 10, Gabbard took to X and shared an ominous video that displayed to viewers that the 'political elite' and 'warmongers' were recklessly at odds and suggested that Earth is 'on the brink of nuclear annihilation.' The outlet added in its report that Trump saw the video, which was not approved by the administration, and told others at the White House that she went outside the lines regarding messaging around the Iran and Israel conflict. Trump met last week with Israeli officials who sought the United States' support in its assault on Iran. It was also stated that Trump reportedly thought Gabbard was trying to steer him away from working with Israel on their recent offensive maneuvers. 'I don't think he dislikes Tulsi as a person. But certainly the video made him not super hot on her, and he doesn't like it when people are off message,' a source close to Trump told Politico . The rumors of disdain appeared somewhat true after Trump spoke to a throng of reporters aboard Air Force One. When asked about Gabbard's comments made in March that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapon, Trump made a stern statement. 'I don't care what she said,' Trump said on Tuesday (June 17). 'I think they were very close to having one.' Tulsi Gabbard spoke to reporters as well yesterday, claiming that she and President Trump were in agreement about the situation unfolding in Iran. That said, outside observers are seeing this potential split as a troublesome thing for the Trump administration. We've got reactions from X regarding the situation below. — Photo: Andrew Harnik / Getty President Trump, Tulsi Gabbard Reportedly Clash Over Iran-Related Nuclear War Tweet was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
