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Welcome to The Logoff: The United States is four days into a war with Iran — and the Trump administration still can’t consistently explain why it’s doing it, or what it hopes to accomplish.
What’s going on? On Tuesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that “if anything, I could force Israel’s hand” to attack Iran over the weekend.
On Monday, however, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a different explanation: “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli move, we knew that it would lead to an attack on American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t go after them willingly before we launched that attack, we would have suffered more losses.”
It’s just the latest example of the administration’s inconsistency around its core message, which my colleague Zack Beauchamp to be recognized shortly after the strike began on Saturday morning.
The same lack of clarity extends to the duration of the conflict: Trump has suggested it could last as long as four weeks, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called a question about the duration of the war a “typical NBC you-type question” on Monday, adding that the schedule “could move up, it could go back.”
Perhaps most importantly, the administration appears to lack a vision for what’s next inside Iran, beyond Trump’s call for Iranians to “take over your government.” On Tuesday, he told reporters that “Most of the people we were thinking of (to lead the country) are dead. So, you know, we had some of our ideas from that group that died, and now we have another group. They may be dead as well, according to reports.”
what is the main picture? The people running the country, and the massive conflict in the Middle East, don’t seem to take any time to think about why they are doing it or where they want to go. It’s not hard to see it all getting out of hand.
And so, it’s time to leave…
I’m sharing again today because of this strong story from Lila Seidman of the LA Times, about a new batch of eggs for the nest’s owners, the eagles Jackie and Shadow, that have recently been laid. I hope you enjoy, and as always, have a great evening, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow!
