WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he ordered U.S. forces to join Israel's attack on Iran because he believed Iran was about to strike first, contradicting the rationale offered a day earlier by his secretary of state for how the war began.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the U.S. launched the attack because of fears that Iran would retaliate in response to planned Israeli action against Tehran.
"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," Rubio said.
Trump rejected suggestions that Israel pushed the U.S. into the conflict, as his administration gave varying accounts and faced criticism from some supporters and Democrats who accused him of launching a "war of choice."
"I might have forced their (Israel’s) hand," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. "We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that."
Iran has said the U.S. assault was unprovoked.
Several prominent conservative commentators ratcheted up their criticism of the Iran attacks, arguing Rubio's comments indicated that Israel, not the Trump administration, was calling the shots.
"So he's flat out telling us that we're in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand," conservative podcaster Matt Walsh wrote of Rubio to his 4 million followers on X. "This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said."
Megyn Kelly, a conservative podcaster, told her audience that she had doubts about Trump's decision to strike Iran.
"Our government's job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It's to look out for us. And this feels very much to me like it is clearly Israel's war," Kelly said in remarks aired prior to Rubio's comments.
The criticism from Trump's right flank comes as his Republican Party is fighting to hold on to control of the U.S. Congress in November midterm elections.