President Donald Trump’s begrudging decision to relaunch attacks on Iran won’t preclude him from seeking a diplomatic end to the war, but Trumpworld insiders say that a slow escalation of the fighting between Israel and Iran ultimately forced the president’s hand.According to persons close to the president, Iran’s downing of an Army Apache helicopter off the coast of Oman Monday night was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The president announced the following day that the U.S. would “respond,” which turned into multiple waves of strikes on Iranian targets, including two water reservoirs. “We’re attacking them very hard,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “Based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that.”
However, two longtime, out-of-government advisers to the president say that the events of weeks prior had already set the ball in motion for at least a temporary resumption of American military actions.
One person, a veteran of Trump’s presidential campaigns, told the Washington Examiner that the “damaged” ceasefire talks were “unsustainable,” and that the president, who has repeatedly extended the negotiating window since April, “reached a breaking point.”
