President Donald Trump has denied being drawn into war with Iran by Israel, and the US president faces growing criticism of the conflict, including from his own base.
“Israel never approached me for war with Iran. The outcome of October 7th further reinforced my lifelong belief that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” President Trump said in a social media post Monday.
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There is no public evidence directly linking Iran and Hamas to the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. President Trump’s own intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, also testified before Congress in March that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.
Eight months before the war began, President Trump repeatedly said that the U.S. attack on Iranian facilities in June 2025 had “annihilated” the country’s nuclear program.
Many of President Trump’s critics argue that Iran is not an imminent threat to the United States and that this war would only advance Israeli interests at the expense of the security and prosperity of Americans.
Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices soaring in response to a joint US-Israeli attack on February 28 that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, other government officials and hundreds of civilians.
In the United States, energy costs are rising and inflation is accelerating. The price of a gallon of gasoline (3.8 liters) has hovered above $4, up from less than $3 before the war, and continues to rise, more than a week after the armistice agreement between Washington and Tehran took effect.
A recent poll by NBC News suggested that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the war.
Amid growing discontent, many of the president’s critics point to Israel as the real power behind the war and paint him as a weak leader following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“He went into a war — dragged into it by Bibi Netanyahu, let me be clear — into a war that the American people didn’t want,” Kamala Harris, Trump’s 2024 Democratic opponent, said last week.
Harris served as vice president in President Joe Biden’s administration and provided diplomatic and military support for Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza for more than two years.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump cast himself as a “peace” candidate and promised to end the wars that began under the Biden administration.
President Trump’s National Security Strategy, released last year, also stated that the United States would shift its foreign policy and military resources from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere.
However, Prime Minister Netanyahu has visited President Trump six times in the past year and continues to insist on a hard-line stance toward Iran. The war’s most vocal supporters in Washington are also Israel’s closest allies.
President Trump on Monday renewed his attack on mainstream media for its coverage of the war with Iran.
“I watch and read fake news pundits and polls in utter disbelief. 90% of what they are saying is lies and fabrications, and just like the 2020 presidential election was rigged, so are the polls,” the US president wrote.
He also touted his policy in Venezuela, which maintains stability and strengthens ties with Washington after U.S. forces abducted President Nicolás Maduro in January.
But in Iran, U.S. and Israeli attacks led to the shutdown of Hormuz and continued Iranian attacks across the region for almost six weeks.
The conflict is currently at a pause, with further talks between U.S. and Iranian officials likely in Pakistan this week. But both sides have threatened to resume fighting if an agreement is not reached.
“Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn’t like to talk about, the results in Iran will be astounding. And if Iran’s new leadership (regime change!) is wise, Iran will have a great and prosperous future!” Trump wrote.
