Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities wasn't strategic planning—it was pure ego, according to explosive new revelations from author Michael Wolff.
The former president reportedly flip-flopped wildly in the final hours before Saturday's strikes, initially siding with Tucker Carlson's anti-war stance before abruptly reversing course when Republican hawks convinced him military action would make him "look like a winner."
Wolff, speaking on The Daily Beast Podcast, dismissed White House claims that the bombing represented careful, methodical planning. "This is not true at all, this is completely made up," he said bluntly.
He said Trump's version of planning began Wednesday when he watched Carlson's brutal interview with Ted Cruz, where the Texas senator was "massacred" for not knowing basic facts about Iran. Initially, this convinced Trump to embrace the isolationist position championed by Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
But by Friday, everything changed. After a series of phone calls with hawkish congressional Republicans, Trump completely reversed himself, Wolff said. "So by Friday afternoon, it was literally—in a whole series of phone calls—it was 'f--- Tucker,'" Wolff revealed.
The deciding factor? Trump's vanity. "Then the tenor of the phone calls was him saying, 'I think I'm gonna look very good if I do this,'" Wolff explained, calling the Iranian strikes a "vanity bombing."
Meanwhile, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has become the administration's designated scapegoat, he said. After testifying to Congress in March that Iran wasn't actively pursuing nuclear weapons, she was publicly humiliated when Trump called her intelligence "wrong" on Friday.
"The head that will roll here is hers," Wolff predicted. "She's toast."
White House insiders are already distancing themselves from Gabbard, claiming "he never liked her, she was forced on him"—though Wolff notes this revisionist history is "also not true."
The fallout has split Trump's MAGA base, with Carlson initially accusing the president of being "complicit" in escalating the conflict. While Trump claims he received an apology call from Carlson, the former Fox host has remained notably silent about the actual bombing decision.