WASHINGTON — What happens when a presidential administration with no fidelity to facts or the truth prepares for a possible entry into another Mideast war?
Americans may be about to find out, with reality-game-show-host-turned-president Donald Trump claiming he wants a “deal” with Iran to end its nuclear weapons program while simultaneously helping Israel mount a major attack on the country and accepting Israel’s claim that Iran was aggressively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters on his flight back to Washington in the wee hours Tuesday, when asked why his own top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard, had recently told Congress the exact opposite. “I think they were very close to having one.”
Whether Director of National Intelligence Gabbard’s testimony in March — “The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003” — was accurate is also unclear. Gabbard last month fired two intelligence officials after the leak of a report finding that the Venezuelan government was not directing the actions of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua in the United States, contrary to assertions made by Trump’s White House.
