President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would take up to two weeks to decide whether to join Israel in attacking Iran, as the world waits to see if the U.S. military will involve itself in another costly war in the Middle East.
Trump’s pause was relayed to the media by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” said Leavitt, quoting the president directly.
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This delay could give U.S. and Iranian officials time to hammer out a peace deal. Trump’s top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, has been in discussion with Iran since April, according to The New York Times. In the face of an unrelenting bombing campaign by Israel, which is now trying to get at Iran’s underground Fordo nuclear facility, Iran might theoretically be more willing to take Trump’s deal: uranium enrichment, but no nuclear weapons programs.
Of course, it’s also possible that the attacks on Iran have hardened the country’s resolve to fight on, making a deal much less likely than before. Indeed, Iran’s regime may see the acquisition of a nuclear weapon as the only reasonable option for deterring further attacks by Israel. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu seems inclined to give the U.S. no choice but to join the strikes on Iran. According to reports, Trump repeatedly ordered Netanyahu not to engage in wide-ranging attacks on Iran, but eventually related in the face of Israeli intelligence alleging that Iran was close to building a bomb. On the U.S. side, however, there is no new intelligence about the gravity of the Iranian nuclear threat; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard confirmed in March that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei “has not authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”
Echoes of Iraq. The situation is drawing obvious parallels with the disastrous Iraq War, launched by President George W. Bush in 2003. In that case, intelligence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was acquiring weapons of mass destruction led the Bush administration to launch an offensive war on the country, at the cost of billions of dollars and millions of lives. The intelligence, however, was wrong.
Trump’s success during the 2016 campaign was due in part to his vocal opposition to the Iraq War, which by then was considered a profound mistake by just about everybody but the Republican Party’s establishment. In the Republican primary debates, Trump railed against Bush by proxy—his brother, Jeb, was running for the nomination—and scored points with intervention-weary voters.
Trump confronting Jeb Bush about the war in Iraq
pic.twitter.com/Z1S82NjPTq— Special Situations ???? Research Newsletter (Jay) (@SpecialSitsNews) June 18, 2025
The Make American Great Again (MAGA) base is not a monolith, and some conservative commentators seem confident that MAGA is with Trump, no matter what he decides. “Trump’s supporters have his back whatever he chooses,” wrote David Marcus, a Fox News columnist, in response to my question about the internal MAGA debate on this issue.
Can Trump really do no wrong, from the standpoint of his base? Maybe so. But the extent to which there is a real difference of opinion on this issue should not be ignored. Many leading Republican personalities—Steve Bannon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.)—are dead set against military escalation, as are libertarian-leaning members of Congress such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.). And importantly, the rightwing podcasting universe is also opposed: Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Tucker Carlson, etc. These are the platforms that Trump made ample use of during the 2024 presidential campaign. His successful appeal to young, male voters is largely and correctly attributed to this strategy. The audiences for Rogan, Von, and Carlson are non-interventionists, and Trump sold himself to them on that basis.
That might be one of the reasons why Trump has apparently decided to give peace one more chance—if that is indeed what he is doing.
Markets react. The markets love peace: The news that Trump has delayed any military action caused a favorable reaction in the stock market. “Investors on Friday are cheering President Trump’s announcement that he could take up to two weeks before deciding whether to join Israel in striking Iran,” reported The New York Times.
Scenes from D.C.: Summer is upon us, which means the nation’s capital is plagued by sweltering humidity and high temperatures throughout the day, and then sudden thunderstorms that appear out of nowhere. One such storm even produced an impressive rainbow over the White House. Happy pride month, y’all.
Afternoon rain showers in Washington D.C. left a rainbow over the White House on Wednesday. (via NEWSMAX’s @MikeCarterTV) pic.twitter.com/AePuLYcJWu
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 19, 2025
- In other news, the Los Angeles Dodgers claimed that immigration officials attempted to enter Dodger Stadium and were rebuffed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied this, staying flatly: “We were never there.”
- Fox News reporter Matt Finn contends it was Border Patrol, rather than ICE.
- A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Guard can remain in Los Angeles, California, as the order to deploy them there was lawful.
- A SpaceX starship exploded during a test launch.
- Wealthy businessmen are vowing to leave New York City if Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is elected mayor of the city. The Democratic primary election, which will likely determine who eventually becomes mayor, is next Tuesday, June 24. Mamdani is within striking distance of the frontrunner, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
