While some on both sides continue to disingenuously claim that the United States attacked Iran because Israel forced our hand or that Israel “dragged us” into war, based on a complete misinterpretation of comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, President Trump forcefully clarified why the U.S. went ahead with Operation Epic Fury and why the mission was launched when it was.
During a press conference in the Oval Office with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, the President was asked, “Mr. President, did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?” He replied, “No,” and the question continued, “Did any [inaudible] pull the United States into this war?”
Trump answered:
“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. And 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 doing, I think 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.”
“Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?”@POTUS: “No… Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think [Iran] was going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen — so if anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand.” pic.twitter.com/7fi44RFlge
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 3, 2026
As Bonchie wrote Tuesday morning, conservative pundits and at least one member of Congress are seemingly willfully taking Rubio’s comments out of context. Even in watching the full clip Matt Walsh commented on, it’s clear that Rubio isn’t saying what Walsh claims he’s saying.
So he’s flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said. https://t.co/68cs255Zoj
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 2, 2026
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04) then commented on Walsh’s post, nobody bothered to watch the entire clip, and we were off to the races.
Here’s what Rubio said:
“The United States conducted this operation with a clear goal in mind. I haven’t had a chance to see a lot of reporting – I don’t understand what the confusion is. Let me explain it to you, and I’ll do it, once again, as clearly as possible; perhaps you’ll report it that way.
“The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and the threat caused by their Navy, particularly to naval assets. That is what it is focused on doing right now, and it’s doing quite successfully. I’ll leave it to the Pentagon and the Department of War to discuss the tactics behind that and the progress that’s being made. That is the clear objective of this mission.
“The second question I’ve been asked is, why now? Well, there’s two reasons why now. The first is, it was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone — the United States or Israel or anyone — they were going to respond, and respond against the United States. The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders. It was automatic. And, in fact, it beared to be true, because in fact within an hour of the initial attack on the leadership compound the missile forces in the south, and in the north, for that matter, had already been activated to launch. In fact, those had already been pre-positioned.
“The third is the assessment that was made, that if we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties. And so the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed, and then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”
Only people without critical thinking skills could listen to all of that and conclude that “we are in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand.” We were going to strike Iran and take out its capabilities and leadership regardless, and of course we were going to do it with our closest ally in the region; it was just a question of when.
On Tuesday morning, the White House’s Rapid Response account posted additional video from that press conference related to Israel.
“Was the US forced to strike because of an impending Israeli action?”@SecRubio: “No… No matter what, ultimately, this operation needed to happen — that’s the question of ‘why now?’ But this operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would… https://t.co/frLktQkfcb pic.twitter.com/9MqYEn5ocW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 3, 2026
Rubio was asked if the U.S. was forced to strike because of impending Israeli action, and he replied:
“No… No matter what, ultimately, this operation needed to happen — that’s the question of ‘why now?’ But this operation needed to happen, because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it, because they could hold the whole world hostage.
“Look at the damage they’re doing now — and this is a weakened Iran. Imagine a year from now. So, that had to happen. Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it — but this had to happen no matter what.”
Unfortunately, it looks like there are many committed to misunderstanding and to molding anything that’s said by U.S. officials to fit their own pre-determined narrative, and that they’re going to continue.
Editor’s Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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