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Donald Trump once again tore into a CNN reporter for pressing him on Israel’s war against Iran, fuming on Wednesday that the “fake news” network never asks him any positive questions when he was pressed about the growing MAGA backlash to America’s potential involvement in the conflict.
During an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn as he oversaw the installation of flagpoles, the president said he was still weighing whether the United States would join forces with Israel in its bombing campaign in Iran. Trump and his administration are currently considering striking underground Iranian nuclear facilities, which can only be destroyed by American-made bunker-busting bombs.
“You don't know that I'm going to even do it. You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do,” Trump scoffed at CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene’s question about his plans. “I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble.”
Trump’s comments on Wednesday come as he’s ramped up his threatening rhetoric towards Iran and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for the nation’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” while suggesting he can “kill” Khamenei at any time as the United States “knows exactly where” he’s hiding.
He also recently dismissed the assessment from his own director of National Intelligence – whom he’s reportedly “losing confidence” in – that Iran is currently not working towards a nuclear weapon. “I don’t care what she said — I think they were very close to having one,” he sneered at CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
“We’re not looking for a ceasefire, I didn’t say it was going to be a ceasefire,” he further fumed at Collins, whom he has regularly insulted and attacked, before dismissing her as “fake news.”
Meanwhile, the president has come under fire from many of his most prominent supporters in the right-wing media ecosphere, who have taken him to task for appearing to backtrack on his promise to end America’s involvement in “forever wars.”
Tucker Carlson, the undisputed leader of MAGA’s isolationist wing, has called Trump “complicit” in Israel’s preemptive attack on Iran while warning the president that “a full-scale war” would “effectively end” his presidency. Trump, of course, has rhetorically fired back at his longtime ally, calling the former Fox News host “kooky Tucker” and mockingly referencing the fact that Carlson is no longer on cable news.
While still taking questions from the press on Wednesday, Trump bristled when Treene asked about the fracture among his base over the specter of another American-led war in the Middle East, prompting the president to personally attack the CNN reporter.
“Fake news! Fortunately nobody watches. Is anybody watching CNN nowadays? I haven’t seen it in a long time,” Trump groused.
“But some of your supporters are wary of the U.S. getting involved in another war abroad,” Treene continued before the president cut her off.
“Do you ever ask a positive question at CNN? My supporters are more in love with me today, and I'm in love with them, more than they were even at election time,” Trump muttered before rambling on about his “landslide” electoral victory. “Did CNN report that?!”
Brian Glenn, a correspondent for MAGA channel Real America’s Voice who also happens to be Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend, then jumped in to gently frame Treene’s question in a different way for the president.
“I think what she is alluding to is that the base is going to stay with you regardless,” Glenn said. “But some of the people in the base don’t want a long-term war. They’re afraid we’re going to get into a long-term war.”
After promising that “we’re not going to have a long-term war,” the president asserted that he just wants to ensure that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon while insisting that he’s been consistent on this issue for the past 20 years. At the same time, he claimed that his approval rating is the highest it’s ever been, especially among conservatives.
“So I may have some people who may be a little bit unhappy now, but I have some people who are very happy – people outside of the base who can’t believe this is happening, they’re so happy,” he declared.
Of course, one of those unhappy campers happens to be Glenn’s girlfriend, who has publicly sided with Carlson amid Trump’s attack on the ex-Fox star, claiming that “real America First/MAGA” do not want American involvement in foreign wars.
“Americans don’t want to bomb Iran because the secular government of Israel says that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb any day now,” she tweeted at the president.
“And foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction,” Greene wrote in another post. “That’s not kooky. That’s what millions of Americans voted for. It’s what we believe is America First.”
As for the president’s assertion that his approval ratings are soaring amid his Iran saber-rattling, an Economist/YouGov poll this week found that only 41 percent of Americans approved of the job he’s doing, matching his second-term low. On top of that, only 16 percent of Americans think that the U.S. military should get involved in the war between Israel and Iran – including just 23 percent of Republicans.
