{"id":381192,"date":"2026-04-08T10:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/381192\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:19:21","slug":"top-trump-aides-told-him-pms-prewar-regime-change-forecast-was-farcical-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/381192\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Trump aides told him PM’s prewar regime change forecast was ‘farcical’ \u2014 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a high-stakes pitch this February in the White House Situation Room for the US to launch a war against Iran together with Israel, selling US President Donald Trump on a range of predictions regarding how swiftly the joint operation would go that have largely not panned out, according to an extended report in The New York Times<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The report, which detailed how Trump arrived at his decision to go to war on February 28, said Netanyahu told Trump that Iran\u2019s ballistic missile program could be destroyed in a few weeks; Tehran would be so weakened by US-Israeli attacks that it would be unable to block traffic through the Strait of Hormuz; it would likely be unable to strike US assets in neighboring countries; and the regime was ripe for collapse, thanks to help from Kurdish fighters capable of invading the country from Iraq.<\/p>\n

While Trump\u2019s CIA chief and secretary of state would later characterize Netanyahu\u2019s regime change prediction as \u201cfarcical\u201d and \u201cbullshit,\u201d the president and many of his advisers were sold on the ideas that Iran\u2019s leadership could be taken out and that its military arsenal could be destroyed, according to the report, which cited extensive interviews with administration officials conducted on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

While the report credited Netanyahu\u2019s scenario with talking Trump into green-lighting the war, it also said that the US president needed little persuasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Trump\u2019s hawkish thinking aligned with Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s over many months, more so than even some of the president\u2019s key advisers recognized,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with Netanyahu\u2019s pitch, the US newspaper noted that during his non-consecutive terms in office, Trump has considered Iran \u201ca uniquely dangerous adversary and was willing to take great risks to hinder the regime\u2019s ability to wage war or to acquire a nuclear weapon,\u201d and that the prime minister\u2019s advocacy complemented the president\u2019s own desire to topple the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Despite Netanyahu\u2019s reported assertions, Iran has continued daily ballistic missile launches nearly six weeks after the initial strikes and is still assessed<\/a> to have enough missiles and launchers to do so for an extended period<\/a>. It also immediately moved to block the Strait of Hormuz, causing a global energy crisis, and has carried out thousands of missile and drone attacks on nearly all of its neighbors.<\/p>\n

Additionally, it was apparently said that Mossad had predicted that the Iranian protest movement would be reignited, with the spy agency playing a role, allowing the Iranian opposition to take power amid an intensive campaign of airstrikes.<\/p>\n

The report said the Israeli team also suggested Kurdish fighters could enter Iran from Iraq in a ground operation. This plan, which was also reported<\/a> by Channel 12 news last week, was pulled by the White House after various leaks to the media, lobbying by allies, and wariness among the Kurds themselves.<\/p>\n

According to The New York Times, CIA Director John Ratcliffe told a meeting of top US officials a day after Netanyahu\u2019s February 11 presentation that the views on potential regime change were \u201cfarcical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets US President Donald Trump at the White House, February 11, 2026. (Avi Ohayon\/ GPO)<\/p>\n

Rubio then reportedly said: \u201cIn other words, it\u2019s bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Trump asked Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, for his opinion, the top military official reportedly told the president that the plan from the Israelis appeared overblown.<\/p>\n

Caine reportedly told Trump that such boisterous assessments were \u201cstandard operating procedure for the Israelis,\u201d and that Israel\u2019s planning is \u201cnot always well-developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know they need us, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re hard-selling,\u201d Caine reportedly said.<\/p>\n

A very quick war<\/p>\n

The report specified that Trump appeared most interested in killing the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and delivering a blow to the regime\u2019s military capabilities, with other aspects of the plan, including sparking an uprising and regime change, less relevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the following days, General Caine shared with Mr. Trump and others the alarming military assessment that a major campaign against Iran would drastically deplete stockpiles of American weaponry, including missile interceptors, whose supply had been strained after years of support for Ukraine and Israel. General Caine saw no clear path to quickly replenishing these stockpiles,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump listens as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine speaks at Mar-a-Lago on January 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n

It added that Caine noted the \u201cenormous difficulty\u201d of securing Hormuz if Iran moved to block it, though Trump dismissed such a possibility, believing that the regime would \u201ccapitulate before it came to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president appeared to think it would be a very quick war \u2014 an impression that had been reinforced by the tepid response to the US bombing of Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities in June,\u201d the Times said.<\/p>\n

The newspaper added that while Caine\u2019s colleagues believed the military official thought war with Iran was a bad idea, he did not tell Trump his opinion on the matter, believing his role was to provide Trump with options, not sway policy.<\/p>\n

Additionally, far-right media personality Tucker Carlson made several trips over the past year to visit Trump\u2019s Oval Office, during which he repeatedly lobbied against military conflict with Iran. According to the report, Trump replied: \u201cI know you\u2019re worried about it, but it\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Carlson asked the president how he was so sure, Trump said: \u201cBecause it always is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Situation Room<\/p>\n

When it came time to actually green-light the plan, Trump held a \u201cfinal\u201d Situation Room meeting on February 26, two days before the US and Israel ultimately launched their attacks.<\/p>\n

Given the extreme sensitivity of the topic, several senior cabinet secretaries were kept from the meeting, namely Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, which only lasted some 90 minutes, Vice President JD Vance, who made his opposition to military action with Iran well known in previous discussions, reportedly told Trump: \u201cYou know I think this is a bad idea, but if you want to do it, I\u2019ll support you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThis photo, provided by the White House, which has been partially blurred, shows US President Donald Trump talking with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, during Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026. (Daniel Torok\/The White House via AP)<\/p>\n

White House communications director Steven Cheung also voiced concern, laying out what he saw as a likely \u201cpublic relations fallout,\u201d the Times added. Among his concerns was the fact that Trump specifically campaigned on not involving the US in any new wars.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Cheung reportedly wondered how the administration would be able to \u201cexplain away\u201d the fact that it had repeatedly insisted that Iran\u2019s nuclear program was \u201cobliterated\u201d after the US strikes on three facilities last June, while now saying that it had to act to remove Iran\u2019s \u201cimminent\u201d nuclear threat.<\/p>\n

According to the report, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested that Trump should strike, while Rubio cautioned against a major operation, saying: \u201cIf our goal is regime change or an uprising, we shouldn\u2019t do it. But if the goal is to destroy Iran\u2019s missile program, that\u2019s a goal we can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to do it,\u201d Trump then told the room. Less than a day later, Trump gave the official go-ahead, saying: \u201cOperation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a high-stakes pitch this February in the White House Situation Room for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-381192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}