‘I Might Have Forced Their Hand’: Trump Denies Israel Forced U.S. to Strike Iran
Trump also confirmed that Operation Epic Fury has destroyed all of Iran’s defenses.
President Donald Trump addressed Operation Epic Fury in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The men had more on the menu other than Iran, but the media concentrated on the operation.
The media twisted Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments when asked why the U.S. chose to strike Iran at this time.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said last night. “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 and perhaps even higher those killed, and then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”
EHRMEHGERD ISRAEL FORCED THE U.S. TO GET INVOLVED!
Yeah, no.
Trump not only backed up Rubio’s comments, but admitted he might have forced Israel to take action:
ABC’s @RachelVScott: “Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?”
President Trump: “No.”
Scott: “Did Netanyahu pull United States into this war?
Trump: “No, I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that, and we have great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives, very successful. And based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first, and I didn’t want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready and we were ready, and we’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.
ABC’s @RachelVScott: “Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran?”
President Trump: “No.”
Scott: “Did Netanyahu pull United States into this war?
Trump: “No, I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it… pic.twitter.com/bP9xOT4CKh
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026
Trump also confirmed that Operation Epic Fury has destroyed all of Iran’s defenses:
They have no navy. It’s been knocked out.
They have no air force. It’s been knocked out.
They have no air detection that’s been knocked out.
Their radar has been knocked out, and just about everything’s been knocked out.
They’re going to be in for a lot of hurt. These are bad people. These are people that killed, I guess, it’s 35,000. It’s coming out. 35,000 over the last three weeks, protesters. 35,000 violently killed.
So these are bad people, and the leader of the pack is gone. And as you know, 49 people were taken out in the first hit. And I guess there was another hit today on the new leadership. And it looks like that was pretty substantial.
TRUMP ON IRAN: "They have no navy. It's been knocked out. They have no air force. It's been knocked out."
"They have no air detection. That's been knocked out. Their radar has been knocked out."
"Just about everything has been knocked out… They're going to they're going to be… pic.twitter.com/N4C8uytW3g
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 3, 2026
Trump then lashed out at Spain, which denied the U.S. permission to use its military bases.
“Spanish military bases will not be used for anything that falls outside the agreement with the United States and the United Nations Charter,” said José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister.
Trump praised Germany, but told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off trade with Spain:
Well, some of the European nations have been helpful and some haven’t. And I’m, you know, very surprised. Germany has been great. He’s been terrific. Others have been very good, terrific….But some of the Europeans like Spain, has been terrible.
In fact, I told Scott [Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain. Spain.
First of all, it started when every — every European nation, at my request, paid 5%, which they should be doing, and everybody was enthusiastic about it. Germany, everybody and Spain didn’t do it. And now, Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases, and that’s all right. We don’t we could use their bases if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it, but we don’t have to. But they were unfriendly. And so, I told him, we don’t want to — Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people. They have great people, but they don’t have great leadership.
And as you know, they were the only country that, in NATO, would not agree to go up to 5%. I don’t think they want it agreed to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2% and they don’t pay the 2%.
So we’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.
The United Kingdom didn’t escape Trump’s wrath:
And I’m not — by the way, I’m not happy with the UK either. That island that you read about the lease — okay — he made it — for whatever reason, he made a lease of the island. Somebody came and took it away from him, and it’s taken 3 or 4 days for us to work out where we can land there. It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.
Trump on Spain being a bunch of clowns: “Well, some of the European nations have been helpful and some haven't. And I'm, you know, very surprised. Germany has been great. He's been terrific. Others have been very good, terrific…But some of the Europeans like Spain, has been… pic.twitter.com/pArpG3B2co
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 3, 2026
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Comments
Would this even make a difference? Neocons would shoot their own mothers for a slice of Gaza
Gazans would rape your mother just for the hell of it.
Would it make a difference to you?
It may already have happened.
Yes all those abundant resources…
People that no other country will take in.
Poor Seymour. What a boo hoo-er. 🙄
Neocons shoot their own mothers? Probably not.
Shoot YOUR mother for subjecting us to your blather?
Possible.
“Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases, and that’s all right. We don’t we could use their bases if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it”
Comments?
Trump didn’t use the air bases.
Counter comment?
His claim is that he could use them if he wanted, even if Spain denied permission.
So, that’s all you got? You’re a weak sister. Lets spice this up since you’re such a boor.
Shortwave Observer
@shortwave78
👀⚠️
The mysterious Farsi-language Numbers-Station on 7910kHz, received in 🇮🇹Milan at 18:00 UTC on March 3, 2026.
“Probably the most interesting radio signal in recent times.”
Do you have no comment on Trump’s claim that US forces can just fly in and use those bases even if Spain denies permission?
What’s to comment about it? Of course he can. What’s Spain gonna do about it?
He’s right
We could use them had we wanted. What are the Spanish communists going to do about it? They’d just take a page from your retarded book and impotently whine about it.
Your bros in Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran keep taking Ls, moonhammed.
Yes, he could. You got a problem with that?
Some wet their beds over words they blow out of proportion.
Such a great NATO “ally” is Spain. It has long fallen short of NATO’s benchmarks. Under the previous NATO benchmark of 2 percent of GDP, Spain consistently underperformed, spending only 1.24 percent of the country’s GDP, the lowest among NATO members as a percentage of economic output.
Trump is simply pointing out that the Spanish military consists of one senile old man with a lance and a fat guy on a donkey.
If the U.S. chose to force Spain to allow use, it would barely be an inconvenience for the U.S. military to make that happen.
As for sanctions can anyone help me with what their major exports to the U.S. might be? Valencia oranges, Iberico ham, and Spanish Fly are the only things I can recall.
“If the U.S. chose to force Spain to allow use, it would barely be an inconvenience for the U.S. military to make that happen.”
So?
Yawn.
So what Trump said was correct. Why do you keep asking for comments about something so obviously true? What kind of comment would you like?
Sure, I’ve got a comment, Lord Haw-Haw.
No. One. Gives. A. Shit. About. This.
Oh, one more comment, Tokyo Rose.
Get the hell out of here with your small-beer issues.
Come back when your testicles descend.
Darn it. That might make the Spaniards not vote for Trump. And democrats too. Wait…
Trump is explaining how fascists and nazis would do it, if he happened to actually be one, like your crowd calls him.
Maybe. Or what he would do if it was important enough.
“We could use their bases if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it, but we don’t have to.”
If we did have to, we would do it. It would be any president’s duty to do it. I’m guessing if moonmoth were president, and some vital US interest depended on using the Spanish bases over the commies’ objections, he would say screw the USA, playing nice with the Spaniards is more important.
In the West Wing, President Bartlett asks, “Why is a Kundunese life worth less to me than an American life?”, and Will Bailey answers “I don’t know, sir, but it is.” That’s because the show’s politics were a load of left-wing fuzzy-headed twaddle. The correct answer should have been, “Because you’re the president of America, not of Kundu, sir. It’s your duty to value American lives more than Kundunese ones. If you were president of Kundu your duty would have been the opposite.”
Of course that’s still better than what the equivalent character in the current Democrat Party would have said: “Sir, you feel that way because of the racism embedded deep in your heart, and you must consciously override that racism. Knowing as you do that all humans’ lives are equal, you must value them all the same, and you must be as willing to sacrifice a few Americans to save many Kundunese as you would be to sacrifice a few Kundunese to save many Americans.”
Kick Spain out of Nato (and Turkey while you’re at it.) And France. They can be readmitted if they ever get their heads straight and elect competent leadership but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The alternative is for us to leave Nato before they drag us into another European war. Let them defend themselves or submit to Russia or the Muslims.
The whole premise of the “Bibi made us do it” is the absurd idea that Israel is the dominant partner in the United States/Israel relationship. The US has always been the dominant partner and while Israel has its own set of priorities, the US has far more leverage over Israel than the reverse.
If Trump disagreed with the timing of the attack, he would have stopped it. Israel is dependent on the US for both military and diplomatic support. While much of the world has hedged its bets on middle east policy, the US has always been Israel’s last line of support. They can’t turn their back on us if we are insistent enough.
Trump was very concerned that the US had not done enough to protect the protesters who were slaughtered. He had publicly drawn a red line about Iran’s crackdown on the demonstrations and Iran had ignored his threats. At the time of the peak numbers of demonstrators, the US did not have the forces in place to do much about the repression.
If Trump told the Israelis they had to wait, they would have waited. When intelligence of the meeting of Iran’s leadership presented an opportunity to decapitate the leaders of Iran, Trump was on board because he felt he owed it to the Iranian protesters. This is the context for Rubio’s comments. Trump liked the idea of hitting the leadership of Iran and he knew that Iran would retaliate against American forces in the region. He agreed with the Israelis on the timing and moved up the time table to make sure the US could limit the scope of the Iranian response.
The notion that Bibi made them us do it can be traced back to the antisemitic trope that the Jews control well everything. It’s a stupid trope to begin with put forward by stupid people.
Which Jews? All Jews? Some Jews? What about the rest?
If I had such power let me assure you that plenty of people I despise for their antisemitism would be sleeping with the fishes. I don’t. I’m impotent to affect most things let alone control them and the vast majority of Jews are exactly like me as is virtually everyone in this world.
the jews should own their power
the blks do and are revered for it and then get to play the victims like they have no power
Very well summarized.
and again…
he (rubio) said that for weeks the usa knew israel was going to try and finish the job b/c of iran refusing to negotiate with trump
my take is also that israel knew that iran was still receiving “gifts” from ussr china etc to continue to deplete the american military by any means necessary
matt walsh than added to that that israel had dragged the usa in
and of course lefty loves the in fighting so they nailed that as their next big talking point
Islamofascists and Muslim terrorists have been waging war on non-Muslim “infidels,” worldwide, for over 1,400 years. The evil Iranian regime is merely the latest in a long line of rabid and belligerent Muslim terrorists who needed to be dealt with, harshly.
No, really. I believe him. NOT!