Trump on Iran: ‘If Anything, I Might’ve Forced Israel’s Hand’

President Trump explicitly rejected the notion that Israel dragged the U.S. into war with Iran, saying that, “if anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand.”

Asked Tuesday, “Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?” Trump offered the following answer:

No, I might have forced their hand. You see, 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. We have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives very successfully. And based on the way the negotiation was going, I thought that they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we’ve had a very very powerful impact.

On Monday, a number of commentators desperate to advance the narrative that Israel pushed the U.S. into war were pointing to comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which he said that the U.S. decided the best way to protect American lives was to attack Iran first rather than wait until Israel attacked and then be faced with Iranian retaliation. As I pointed out, based on viewing Rubio’s remarks in full context: he made clear that this was an explanation of the timing of the attack but that the administration believed the attack needed to happen no matter what.

Now Trump is making clear that it was his own decision to go after Iran militarily and that he did not have to be dragged into it.