So far, one of the only pieces of good news in the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran is that President Donald Trump has been reluctant to use military force, taking his cues in part from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has personally warned him that it would end his presidency — resisting the urges of his most trigger-happy advisers like John Bolton.
Now, however, the president appears to be having second thoughts as it becomes clearer that he will not be able to broker a better deal than President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement, and is starting to view the conflict more hawkishly, reported CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Monday.
"At the White House today, the president souring on the idea of a diplomatic deal with Iran as he denies the country's claims it arrested 17 of its citizens for their connections to an alleged CIA spy ring," said Collins. "Sources tell CNN that in recent days, Trump has reverted to a more hawkish position on Iran as his public offers to sit down with the country's leadership have gone unanswered."
Collins also reported that in the Oval Office with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump remarked that he could have won the war in Afghanistan "in a week" but "I just don't want to kill ten million people."
Before taking office, Trump frequently predicted on Twitter that Obama would start a war with Iran for a variety of frivolous reasons, including "to boost his poll numbers" and "to show how tough he is." When Obama instead negotiated a multilateral nuclear deal, Trump spent years attacking the deal as a disaster and put the United States in violation of the agreement in 2018, which is partially responsible for the current tension.
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