How Trump decided to strike Iran

President Donald Trump in recent weeks directed the Pentagon to give him military options for destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump in recent weeks directed the Pentagon to give him military options for destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment program as the president, frustrated with the pace of negotiations, leaned into taking action.

Trump has said his foreign policy is about ending wars, not starting new ones, and he had believed he could cut a deal with Tehran — replacing the nuclear deal agreed to in 2015 under President Barack Obama, which Trump ended in 2018 — that would end Iran’s path to creating a nuclear weapon.

But by last month, Trump had begun to decide that talks were not progressing in a way that gave the Iranians credibility, Vice President JD Vance told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“I think that he decided probably by mid-May that this process was not going anywhere, and so he decided to issue some private ultimatums to the Iranians,” Vance said. “And then eventually, of course, we decided to destroy the Fordo nuclear facility, and some of these other facilities, ourselves.”

Last week, Trump had all but decided to go forward on the military plans presented to him. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, had briefed him on a range of options for Iran earlier this month at Camp David, the secluded presidential retreat in Maryland. One option was not to get involved at all. But at some point after that briefing Trump started leaning toward taking military action.