Tag: donald trump

Israel’s Strikes on Iran Spark Growing Dissent in Congress

On Monday, June 16, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced legislation, a War Powers Resolution, to prevent President Trump from using military force against Iran without Congressional authorization. This will force all Senators to go on record supporting or opposing the following: “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran.”

Sen. Kaine, a longtime advocate for exerting congressional authority over war, blasted Israel for jeopardizing planned U.S.-Iran diplomacy. “The American people have no interest in another forever war,” he wrote.

When Israel launched a surprise military strike on Iran last week, it did more than risk igniting a catastrophic regional war. It also exposed long-simmering tensions in Washington – between entrenched bipartisan, pro-Israel hawks and a growing current of lawmakers (and voters) unwilling to be dragged into another Middle East disaster.

“This is not our war,” declared Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a Republican and one of the House’s most consistent antiwar voices. “Israel doesn’t need U.S. taxpayers’ money for defense if it already has enough to start offensive wars. I vote not to fund this war of aggression.” On social media, he polled followers on whether the U.S. should give Israel weapons to attack Iran. After 126,000 votes (and 2.5 million views), the answer was unequivocal: 85% said no.

For decades, questioning U.S. support for Israel has been a third rail in Congress. But Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran – coming just as the sixth round of sensitive U.S.-Iran nuclear talks were set to take place in Oman – sparked rare and unusually direct criticism from across the political spectrum. Progressive members, already furious over Israel’s war on Gaza, were quick to condemn the new offensive. But they weren’t alone.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) called Israel’s strike “reckless” and “escalatory,” and warned that Prime Minister Netanyahu is trying to drag the U.S. into a broader war. Rep. Chuy García (D-IL) called Israel’s actions “diplomatic sabotage” and said, “the U.S. must stop supplying offensive weapons to Israel, which also continue to be used against Gaza, & urgently recommit to negotiations.”

Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) was even more blunt. “The war criminal Netanyahu wants to ignite an endless regional war & drag the U.S. into it. Any politician who tries to help him betrays us all.”

More striking, however, were the critiques from moderate Democrats and some Republicans.

Keep reading

America’s Deception Strengthens Iranian Hardliners

“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done…. Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!”

Trump made this post on the morning that Israel struck Iran. Expressing the belief that the devastating attacks on Iran would weaken Iran’s hardliners and push them to capitulate to U.S. terms and sign a nuclear deal, Trump said, “They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late…. You know, the [hardliners] I was dealing with are dead.”

The belief that the strikes will weaken the hardliners and improve the chances of forcing Iran to accept a deal that eliminates their peaceful, civilian nuclear program is wrong.

As the strikes on Iran began, U.S. officials insisted that they were not involved in any way. In the first several hours, the only statement coming out of Washington was from the State Department. Though Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had “advised” the U.S. of the action, he called the action a “unilateral action” and said the U.S. was “not involved in strikes against Iran.” Trump posted that “The U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran.”

But Israeli officials told a different story. Though Iran had long been planning for an Israeli attack if nuclear negotiations with the U.S. failed, they thought they were safe while talks remained alive and continued. They did not consider an attack just days before the next round of talks.

Israeli officials not only say that that was the plan, but that the United States, and Trump specifically, were part of the deception. Shortly after the strikes began, Israeli officials claimed that, while Trump and his team publicly opposed the attack, they privately gave a “clear… green light.” They even claimed that public reports that Trump had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a phone call not to strike Iran, “in reality the call dealt with coordination ahead of the attack.”

This claim has not been confirmed, and the U.S. has denied it. It does appear, though, that Trump gave, if not a “clear green light,” then tacit approval. 

Keep reading

Great Big Ugly Surveillance State

On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order “Eliminating Information Silos.” The order directed heads of federal agencies to make sure officials designated by the president “have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems.” The executive order did not attract much attention until it was more recently revealed that the administration was working with tech company Palantir to create a database containing all information collected by all federal agencies on all US citizens.

A database consisting of all the information of American citizens collected by the various federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Pentagon would be a major step in creating a total surveillance state. This database could come in handy to future Dr. Faucis seeking to enforce mask and vaccine mandates. Those with access to this database could see personal health records, education records, and tax returns. They may even be able to see how many firearms individuals have purchased and if they were associated with any organizations the government had labeled “extremist.”

Despite the obvious threat to liberty the “big ugly database” poses, some commentators and “influencers” who would normally oppose, or at least be skeptical of, expansion of the surveillance state are supporting it because they believe it will be used to locate illegal immigrants. Some conservatives are supporting this proposal because it will help identify students who have publicly opposed the U.S. government’s support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Ironically, many of those supporting government cracking down on “anti-Israel” students came to fame (and in some cases fortune) as critics of “wokeness” and cancel culture.

The abandonment of liberty because fear drives people to trust government promises of safety is a phenomenon we have witnessed several times this century. An obvious example is the way many former friends of freedom supported the PATRIOT Act and other infringements on liberty following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We also saw it during the covid hysteria when many embraced mask and vaccine mandates. Following the 2008 market meltdown, normally rather staunch opponents of government intervention supported the bailouts because they agreed with then-President George W. Bush who said he had “abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system.”

Keep reading

Trump blocked Biden-era plan to remove Snake River dams, and he may have prevented an eco-disaster

President Donald Trump issued a memorandum last week blocking an effort that was underway during the Biden-Harris administration to remove four hydroelectric dams in the Snake River. 

Trump’s memorandum revokes a directive from the previous administration, which Trump described as an effort by “radical environmentalism” to raise the “equitable treatment for fish” above that of human flourishing. 

“The negative impacts from these reckless acts, if completed, would be devastating for the region, and there would be no viable approach to replace the low-cost, baseload energy supplied,” Trump stated in the memo. 

If the experiences of those in northern California living along the Klamath River are any indication, Trump is right that a dam-removal project on the Snake River would cause serious and lasting impacts. 

Bad outcomes of dam removal in the past

Last year, four dams near the Klamath River near the Oregon-California border were removed, and people living in communities along the river tell Just the News that the sediment that flooded the river has turned the Klamath into a muddy waterway. While proponents of dam removal say it helps salmon populations, the Klamath River dam removal has decimated fish populations, ruined fishing tourism, and may impact agriculture. 

The worst part, they say, is that all the problems were known long before the removals were carried out. Opponents of the project fought for years to stop it, but the environmentalists who supported the project had more resources and ultimately succeeded in getting what they wanted. 

“We’re a rural community, and we had to have bake sales and auctions to raise money to fight this. And we just didn’t have the funding to be able to fight people coming from all over the globe, essentially, to make this happen,” Richard Marshall, a resident of Fort Jones, California, told Just the News. 

Keep reading

Trump: ‘Everyone Should Immediately Evacuate Tehran’

President Trump on Monday appeared to threaten Iran, writing on his Truth Social account that Iran should have signed a “deal” and calling for the “immediate” evacuation of the Iranian capital of Tehran, a city of about 10 million people.

“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” the president wrote.

He made the threat while attending the G7 summit in Canada. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said after Trump’s post that the president would be leaving the summit “because of what’s going on in the Middle East.”

Trump’s post came after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that he ordered the deployment of additional US capabilities to the Middle East. US officials confirmed that a massive deployment of tanker aircraft was related to the Israel-Iran war, and the US also redirected a second aircraft carrier to the region.

Sources familiar with the matter have told Antiwar.com Editorial Director Scott Horton that the Trump administration is poised to enter Israel’s aggressive war against Iran directly by launching airstrikes, which will almost certainly provoke attacks on US bases in the region.

Israel started bombing Iran on Friday, two days before the US and Iran were due to hold another round of nuclear negotiations. Trump had been demanding Iran eliminate its nuclear weapons program, which was a non-starter for Tehran. Despite the apparent impasse, Iran was set to present a counter-proposal to the US, but the talks were canceled after Israel launched its war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war under the pretext of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, but it has been the consensus of the US Intelligence Community that there was no evidence Tehran was working toward a nuclear weapon.

Keep reading

Trump Hints At ‘Possible’ US Entry Into War Amid Stepped-Up Israeli Daytime Attacks On Tehran

After Saturday reports widely said that Israel requested direct US military assistance in attacking Iranian nuclear sites, President Trump in fresh comments to ABC News has begun to change the White House tune a little, as he now says it’s ‘possible’ the US ‘could get involved’ in the Israel-Iran conflict.

He told ABC’s Rachel Scott that “it’s possible we could get involved” – however he emphasized that the US military is “not at this moment involved” in the conflict. He pivoted to calling for peaceful resolution, saying the US would be “open” to Russian President Vladimir Putin being a mediator in. “He is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it,” Trump said. Of course, he campaigned against new wars starting and said these major conflicts would not have happened if he was president.

Regional sources are reporting on Sunday the highest number of observed strikes in daylight in an around Tehran. Israel’s military says that over 80 sites were hit overnight, and has vowed to “hunt down” ballistic missile launchers in western Iran. Radar and anti-air defense batteries were also struck “as part of the IDF’s aerial superiority in Iranian airspace.”

The densely populated capital of around 15 million has seen hundreds of thousands leave the city for safety.

Keep reading

The Truth About Fort Knox and Gold Leasing

Whatever happened to the Donald Trump and Elon Musk visit to Fort Knox?

You’ll recall the buzz from earlier this year. Trump and Musk loudly announced they were going to visit the U.S. bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky to make sure the U.S. gold was actually there. The press was invited to tag along. Musk claimed that his DOGE team was ready to “audit” the gold bars to see that there were none missing. I had my own views on the announcement (described below) but I certainly agreed this would be the mother of all photo ops.

For the record, the U.S. Treasury holds 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold in the U.S. reserve position. Slightly less than half of this gold is stored in Fort Knox. The remainder is mostly stored in a secure vault at West Point, New York. The exact location of that vault is classified although I happen to know where it is. A small amount is held at the Denver Mint for coinage purposes. Legally the U.S. Treasury owns the gold reserve, but I point out that the U.S. Army actually controls it since almost all of the gold is stored on two Army bases – Fort Knox and West Point.

A Fort Knox Extravaganza

None of this nuance about storage and location deterred Trump and Musk. In the popular imagination, all of the gold is in Fort Knox. That’s where they were headed to prove once and for all that the gold was actually there. Elon Musk planned to livestream the entire visit using his Starlink satellite system. Trump vaguely threatened that if any gold were missing, there would be disastrous consequences for any wrongdoers who removed it. The plot was set. The drama seemed irresistible.

As an aside, I was hoping that Trump and Musk were each reasonably fit and had been lifting some free weights. Gold is heavy! In fact, it’s one of the most dense materials in the periodic table of the elements, leaving aside radioactive elements like uranium and some of the trace elements that only exist in minute atomic-level quantities. A standard 400-Troy Ounce bar weighs 27.4 pounds in the English system. I’ve lifted a few during my visits to secure gold vaults. I always smile for the camera, but inside it takes a lot of strength to keep the gold bar in the air. I was concerned that Trump or Musk might strain their backs putting on a show for the press.

Trump mentioned the proposed visit to Fort Knox in a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. He mentioned it to reporters aboard Air Force One. He mentioned his plan again in remarks before the National Governors Association Conference and at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual meeting.

Then suddenly the whole story went away. Trump never mentioned it again after February 26. Musk went radio silent on the topic after April 6. There was no visit to Fort Knox. There was no announcement about why there would be no visit. It was as if the whole story never happened. It just went away.

Now, Elon Musk is leaving his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That was always in the cards. Musk’s appointment was as a temporary government employee; he was always going to leave about now. But why not put on a memorable gold show during his time in office? It simply never happened.

The Question Is, Why?

Keep reading

The Better Israel/Iran Explanation: Trump Got Played

On June 12, Axios reported, the US regime refused to support Israeli strikes on Iran… but US president Donald Trump said such strikes “might very well happen” even though he wouldn’t want Israel to “blow it” (“it” being a new nuclear deal to replace the one Trump began violating in 2018).

Hours later, Israeli aircraft attacked, apparently damaging Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military figures. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the action as “unilateral” and emphasized that “we are not involved.”

Within hours, however, Trump described the Israeli strikes as, effectively, an outsourcing of US policy. “We knew just about everything,” he said. “We knew enough that we gave Iran 60 days to make a deal and today is 61, right? So, you know, we knew everything.”

After which US forces put its air defense capabilities in the region to work helping Israel blunt the impact of Iranian counterstrikes.

One reasonable conclusion, drawn by any number of reasonable people, is that Trump and Rubio were lying to begin with and that the Israeli strikes enjoyed US approval and possibly even active, direct US support (such as the use of US aerial refueling for the Israeli aircraft).

That certainly seems possible, but I’d like to offer a different theory: Trump got played. The Israelis said they intended to strike. Trump said not to. The Israelis struck anyway, betting that Trump would circle back to claim prior knowledge and tacit approval, then throw in to defend Israel from the consequences of its actions.

I don’t know that either theory will ever be fully proven as correct, but the latter theory tracks with everything we know about Trump’s history and method.

As a “leader,” Trump is congenitally incapable of admitting either of two things: Error or weakness.

Prior to running for politics, he operated entirely on “brand,” not actual accomplishment.

Over decades as a real estate developer, casino operator, etc., he racked up multiple business bankruptcies and built a smaller fortune than he’d have earned from investing his inheritance in an S&P 500-indexed mutual fund and going on permanent vacation.

When sequential failures in real business moved him to go  full Hollywood with The Apprentice, the focus was on being a “boss”  dispensing sage advice to (or yelling “you’re fired” at) future business moguls (most of whom subsequently sank from view).

Having failed upward into the presidency, his strategy remains the same: Promote a Trump “brand” built on the pretense that he’s competent and in charge. When both prove false, just change the story to fit the image.

Keep reading

Diplomacy On His Deathbed – From Peace-President To Warmonger

The US’s involvement in the attacks on Russia and Iran makes a negotiated solution to these conflicts unlikely. Trump, who promised his people peace, is bringing war…

Untrustworthy Trump

One day before the second round of negotiations in Istanbul, Ukraine attacked aircraft from Russia’s strategic bomber fleet with drones hidden in trucks that were smuggled into Russia. We reported on this in “Operation Spiderweb: Ukraine and NATO attack on Russia: a new Pearl Harbor? Full escalation? Are the fanatics back? Facts and analysis.” The military damage was minor; what remained was a propaganda victory for the West – nothing more. On June 11, the Financial Times went to great lengths to prove that these attacks were carried out with AI without Western help. The FT should probably confine itself to business news – pure propaganda without a shred of evidence. A feeble attempt to keep the Americans out of it, without whose help this attack would not have been possible.

This was followed shortly afterwards by a major attack by Israel on Iran. TheTimes of Israel boasted that the US, together with the Israelis, had carried out a multi-layered disinformation campaign to make the Iranians believe that an attack was not imminent. This report is credible, as Trump made no attempt to hide US complicity in the Israeli attack on Iran at the end of the week.

That’s not all, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied US involvement, saying:

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.”Marco Rubio – 13. Juni 2025

This proves that the Americans certainly had a hand in this deadly game and that the Trump administration cannot even manage to coordinate coherently within its own team. Not a sign of professionalism.

Keep reading

America First – We Hardly Knew Ye

The Donald called Fed Chairman Powell a “numbskull” last week and deservedly so. But to paraphrase an old adage, when the cap fits said numbskulls tend to wear it themselves.

Surely, that’s where we are this morning upon Israel’s reprehensible attack on Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities and decapitation of its military and scientific leadership. Self-evidently, the attack was well known to Trump and tacitly greenlighted by him during the course of several conversations this past week with Netanyahu himself.

And that’s no armchair surmise. The Donald has been yapping like a banshee this morning telling one and all reporters that the attack fits like hand-in-glove to his “art of the deal” maneuvers. It may look like more war but its actually just part of the Donald’s brilliant pursuit of peace. Says he.

Thus, he told CNN’s Dana Bash that he had given Iran 60 days to capitulate to his demands regarding a new nuke treaty, and yesterday was day 61. The implication, of course, is that he gave them fair warning and therefore Tehran needed a 2X4 between the eyes for failing to satisfy the Great Dealmaker on the Potomac on a timely basis.

Likewise, ABC’s Trump-hating Jonathan Karl also got a heads up to the effect that –

I just spoke to President Trump and asked him about the Israeli attack on Iran. Here’s what he told me: “I think it’s been excellent.  We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. a lot more.”

Moreover, just in case the message through these ordinarily hostile reporters wasn’t clear, the Donald let loose on social media a fusillade of bombast, bravado and sheer juvenile depravity that has never before been issued from the Oval Office in such raw and unfiltered form.

Keep reading