Trump caps dramatic 24 hours in Israel-Iran war with NATO summit leaders

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE THREE IRAN NUCLEAR SITES TARGETED IN US STRIKES

“I can’t tell what the nature of this ceasefire is, what the Iranians have committed to, and whether there is any planning behind the next steps,” American Enterprise Institute foreign and defense policy studies senior fellow Danielle Pletka told the Washington Examiner. “I have seen the president insist that Iran will have ‘no enrichment,’ but I haven’t seen Iran sign up to anything. The president is trying to be decisive, but there’s not a lot of information behind his terse statements. I’d love to hear more, and I’m betting the parties in the region are pretty confused as well.”

As Trump departed the White House on Tuesday for the Netherlands and this year’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders summit, he criticized Israel and Iran in explicit terms, but particularly Israel, after they risked his ceasefire deal with their strikes before, leaders of the two countries argue, the agreement took effect.

“I’m not happy with Iran,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn. “But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that.”

“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” Trump added.

Congressional Democrats expressed their own outrage at the administration for postponing classified briefings, from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan “Razin’” Caine, for lawmakers on Capitol Hill after the White House did not advise the Gang of Eight, congressional intelligence leaders, before the president’s Saturday strikes. A briefing for senators will now be on Thursday, with an iteration for the House on Friday, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have returned to Washington after accompanying Trump to the NATO summit.

IRAN LAUNCHES RESPONSE TO US STRIKES. WILL IT STOP THERE OR ESCALATE?

“Due to evolved circumstances as a result of recent positive developments in the Middle East, the previously scheduled briefings for senators is being postponed to this Thursday,” a White House official told the Washington Examiner.

Democratic and some Republican anger at Trump for taking such military action against Iran without congressional approval, as stipulated under Article I of the Constitution, has prompted the Senate to consider whether to support a war powers resolution in a vote later this week as others, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), have called for the president’s third impeachment over Saturday’s strikes.

Rep. Al Green (D-TX) took his latest impeachment resolution to the House floor on Tuesday, with the Democrat accusing Trump of abusing his power for bombing Iran without congressional authorization and dubbing him a “threat to democracy.” However, a bipartisan House voted to table his impeachment resolution, with just 79 Democrats siding with Green.

A poll conducted by CNN and SSRS after Saturday’s strikes but before Iran’s retaliation and Trump’s ceasefire found 56% of respondents disapproved of the president’s decision to take action against Tehran, while 44% approved, with 60% of independents disapproving. A majority also told pollsters that Trump should seek congressional approval before launching any more strikes and that they have “little or no trust in [the president] to make the right decisions about the U.S. use of force in Iran.”

But Republican pollster Whit Ayers encouraged caution regarding early surveys because there has not been “sufficient time since the bombing to get a considered reaction in public opinion.”

“Polls taken in anticipation of an event frequently change after the event happens,” Ayers told the Washington Examiner.

That poll, too, was fielded before a report on Tuesday that the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Department’s intelligence organization, does not think Saturday’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities destroyed either the country’s enriched uranium stockpile or all of its centrifuges, likely only delaying its nuclear program by months.

The White House has condemned the “alleged assessment” of Saturday’s strikes as “flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.”

“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the news outlet. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets – total obliteration.”

En route to the NATO summit, where alliance allies are poised to promise an increase in their defense spending to 5% of their respective gross domestic products, Trump credited his telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday as he traveled to The Hague, Netherlands, for Israel deescalating its response to Iranian strikes before his ceasefire started.

“The ceasefire is very much in effect, and I think we’re going to keep it there for a long time,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “There was going to be a retaliation this morning from Israel, and I said, ‘You’ve got to hold back the planes. That’s enough.’ And they did, which I respect very greatly.”

Although Trump repeated that Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon, he did not directly answer questions concerning whether Tehran had committed not to try to do so.

“They’re not going to have enrichment, and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “They’re going to get on to being the great trading nation. They have a lot of oil. They’re going to do well, and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. The last thing on Iran’s mind right now is nuclear weapons.”

Echoing his complaints about Israel and Iran, Trump similarly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for his reluctance to agree to a separate ceasefire, one between himself and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump is expected to speak with Zelensky during the NATO summit after leaving the Group of Seven leaders’ counterpart in Canada early last week, before a breakfast meeting between the pair. While declining to endorse a G7 leaders’ statement on the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump is anticipated to back a NATO leaders’ communique condemning Russia as a “direct threat,” but not previewing Ukraine‘s acceptance into the alliance as has happened in the past.

Despite Trump’s risk-taking in terms of possibly drawing NATO allies into a war in the Middle East with Saturday’s strikes, the president equivocated on his plane about whether he stood behind Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Under Article 5, an armed attack against one NATO member is interpreted as an attack against them all.

“It depends on your definition,” Trump said. “There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. But I’m committed to being their friends. You know, I’ve become friends with many of those leaders, and I’m committed to helping them.”

Atlantic Council Europe Center senior fellow Rachel Rizzo, who is at the NATO summit, told the Washington Examiner that allies “are certainly on edge” about Trump’s ceasefire between Israel and Iran and “hoping it sticks,” though she does not “get the sense that there was any real worry Europe would get dragged into a broader conflict.”

“As for Article 5: This is Trump being Trump,” Rizzo said. “It’s unnerving, but I’d urge allies not to read too much into off-the-cuff comments like that, which he’s made for years now.”

WHAT WAR POWERS DOES TRUMP HAVE AND WHEN CAN HE USE THEM?

“Europeans should be used to it at this point,” she continued. “Instead, focus on the communique once that comes out and the fact that other members of his administration, including the U.S. ambassador to NATO, just today, have said the U.S. is committed to Europe and not going anywhere.”

Upon his arrival in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, on Tuesday, Trump was hosted by the country’s royal family for dinner with other NATO leaders, including Zelensky. The group then participated in a photo before Wednesday’s meetings began in earnest. Trump is staying at the palace as NATO leaders appeal to him about the importance of the alliance.