Members of President Donald Trump’s inner circle are experiencing “buyer’s remorse” over the Iran conflict and are beginning to regard Operation Epic Fury as a disastrous mistake, according to a report.
The U.S. and Israel launched surprise joint airstrikes against Tehran in the early hours of Saturday, February 28, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Ayatollah Khamenei on the first day of the aerial bombardment, ending his 47-year authoritarian reign in one fell swoop.
Iran quickly hit back with retaliatory strikes of its own against its Gulf neighbor states hosting American and Israeli military assets. So far, 13 U.S. servicemembers have died. Meanwhile, Tehran’s moves to target tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s total oil supply is shipped, have caused global fuel prices to soar.
Now an administration source quoted by Axios has claimed that Trump was “high on his own supply” when he gave the greenlight for the joint operation to commence.
They suggested that the president had assumed that bringing Iran to heel would be simple, given the success of last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer targeting the aspiring nuclear state’s uranium enrichment sites and of the U.S. operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela on January 3.
“He saw multiple decisive quick victories with extraordinary military competence,” the source said.
“[Trump] ended up saying, ‘I just want to do it,’” they continued. “He grossly overestimated his ability to topple the regime short of sending in ground troops.”
However, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly rubbished Axios’s report as “totally false.”
“The entire administration is united behind President Trump and the Department of War as our United States military continues to crush the Iranian regime,” she told The Independent.
“The president listens to a host of opinions on any given issue, but ultimately decides based on what is best for our country and U.S. national security.”
The Independent also reached out to the Pentagon for comment but was referred back to the White House.
The president himself bragged to The Financial Times Sunday: “We’ve essentially decimated Iran... They have no navy, no anti-aircraft, no air force, everything is gone.
“The only thing they can do is make a little trouble by putting a mine in the water – a nuisance, but the nuisance can cause problems.”
But another senior Trump administration official quoted by Axios warned that those problems could become more acute if they force the president into what the outlet described as an “escalation trap.”
“The Iranians f***ing around with the Strait makes [Trump] more dug in,” they warned, suggesting the U.S. could find itself forced into using ever greater force – at great expense – to demonstrate its dominance, whereas success for Iran merely means surviving its present ordeal.
A prolonged engagement with Iran could backfire on Trump – who has midterm elections to win this November – particularly given that the conflict is widely unpopular, with the American public remaining uneasy about the administration’s mixed messaging over its ultimate purpose and probable duration.
Just 29 percent of U.S. voters are currently in favor of the operation, according to an Ipsos poll, with 43 percent opposed and 26 percent unsure.
Given that the president promised an end to American involvement in “forever wars” overseas during the campaign, support for the airstrikes is proving highly divisive among his MAGA movement.
Some influential opinion-makers have even traded vicious personal insults as the internal tensions within Trump’s base threaten to yield a much larger fracture.
MTG claims people ‘high up’ in the Trump White House are against war with Iran
Trump announces that chief of staff Susie Wiles has breast cancer
Iran-US war latest: Nato allies reject Trump’s demand to help open Strait of Hormuz
US-Iran war will cause food prices to spike, NFU chief warns
How Trump’s terror claim about Iran may have just helped an Osama bin Laden henchman
New trend emerges after Trump pumps the breaks on mass deportation strategy
