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As Republican war “hawks” reportedly pressure President Donald Trump to allow an Israeli strike against Iranian weapons sites, the administration has ordered US personnel to move out of the Middle East amid rising tensions.
“Well they are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place and we’ll see what happens, but they are – we’ve given notice to move out,” Trump said Wednesday. Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon. We are not going to allow that,” he added.
The remark came hours after Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AR, sounded the alarm that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had “confirmed that Iran’s terrorist regime is actively working towards a nuclear weapon.”
“For the sake of our national security, the security of our allies, and millions of civilians in the region this cannot be allowed to happen,” Cotton stated.
Cotton’s advocacy for a confrontation with Iran, made in tandem with similarly urgent statements from other hawks such as talk show host Mark Levin, is reportedly part of a coordinated effort to derail Trump’s longstanding opposition to what he calls the “stupid wars” of the GOP establishment he has been credited with defeating in the 2016 and 2024 elections.
As POLITICO reported Tuesday, an “influential group of GOP hawks has launched a behind-the-scenes lobbying offensive pressing President Donald Trump to not only back off his administration’s quest for a nuclear deal with Iran, but greenlight an attack on Tehran by Israel.”
“The campaign is raising alarms among Trump and his allies, who have launched a counteroffensive to keep the president’s diplomacy on track,” POLITICO‘s report continued. At a private meeting with Trump, Levin told the president “that Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon, an argument Trump’s own intelligence team has told the president is not accurate….”
The urgings of Levin and others to allow Israel to strike Iranian weapons sites amount to a direct confrontation of Trump’s chosen approach.
As CatholicVote reported May 28, Trump “personally asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to delay any military strike against Iran, citing progress in US-led nuclear negotiations with Tehran. ‘I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution,’ Trump said at a White House press briefing.”
“Trump suggested a nuclear agreement could emerge ‘in the next couple of weeks,’ emphasizing his push for a diplomatic agreement that would stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” CatholicVote’s report added. “Despite the mounting pressure, Trump continues to maintain that diplomacy remains the best path forward.”
Other commentators are warning against the influence campaign to get Trump to change course.
Again from POLITICO: “MAGA loyalists have been warily eyeing Rupert Murdoch’s papers, particularly the New York Post, as they’ve savaged [Trump diplomatic envoy Steve] Witkoff, suggesting at one point that he’s a mouthpiece for Qatar. The allegations have infuriated some in Trump’s inner circle, who see them as an effort to undercut the talks.”
“They’re trying to push the president to make a decision that’s not what he wants,” a senior Trump administration official told POLITICO. “There’s clearly a lobby for war with Iran vs. those who are more aligned with the president, that know he is the one that has been able to bring them to the negotiating table.”
Tucker Carlson, POLITICO‘s report added, accused Levin “of trying to bully the U.S. into war.”
“There is zero credible intelligence that suggests Iran is anywhere near building a bomb, or has plans to. None,” Carlson stated this week. “So why is Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction? To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government.”