Wednesday June 18, 2025|
The United States, US President Trump said Wednesday, June 18, that the United States may join the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. But he also said the U.S. may not.
“Nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he said during an event to install flag poles outside the White House.
Across Washington, Jerusalem and Tehran, millions of people waited to see if Mr. Trump would plunge the United States into the war between Israel and Iran. Israel has asked the United States to use its more advanced military capability to help further cripple Iran’s nuclear program.
Just a day earlier, Mr. Trump issued bellicose threats to Iran, telling the more than 10 million people living in Tehran, the capital, to evacuate. On a separate post on social media, he all but threatened the life of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump blamed Iran’s leaders for the violence, reiterating that they should have negotiated sooner with the United States to reach a nuclear deal that might have prevented Israel from beginning its strikes. He said Iran now wants to negotiate.
“Why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction?” Mr. Trump said. “Why didn’t you negotiate? I said to the people, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.’”
But in response to a question about whether it was now too late to negotiate, Trump said, “Nothing’s too late.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump left a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations in Canada a day early to return to Washington to deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran. On Tuesday, he met with his national security team at the White House.
Mr. Trump’s public consideration of joining Israel’s military campaign has sharply divided the Republican Party, and left some of the president’s most prominent supporters in disbelief. Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News, and Stephen K. Bannon, a former top aide to Mr. Trump, have both warned the president about allowing the U.S. to be drawn into the conflict. Mr. Trump shot back, describing Mr. Carlson as “kooky” on social media.
Vice President JD Vance has sought to reassure the anti-interventionist part of the party, writing his own lengthy social media post on Tuesday.
“Of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy,” Mr. Vance wrote on X. “But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people’s goals.”
