Sometimes a media report from “sources familiar with the matter” does actually track with the way President Trump’s doctrine is seen. This is one of those times.
According to Axios, White House officials have directly relayed to mid-east friends that President Trump has no intention of using U.S. military resources to target Iran, unless the Iranian regime does something stupid like target Americans.
It is easy to imagine this type of relay was made by President Trump to Saudi Arabia (MbS), Qatar (Muslim Brotherhood) and/or Jordan (King Abdullah II), with the full intention of the message reaching Iranian govt officials.
[AXIOS] The big picture: The U.S. has helped Israel intercept missiles, but made clear Israel is acting alone in attacking Iran. The U.S. message is that if Iran attacks Americans in response, it will be crossing a red line.
The intrigue: The U.S. sent a similar message to the same countries about an hour between Israel launched the war last Thursday, telling them the U.S. would not participate.
In both cases, the U.S. seemed to expect the countries to pass that message to Iran to discourage any retaliation against U.S. forces or interests in the region.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Between the lines: While Iranian leaders have accused the U.S. of complicity in Israel’s war effort, and threatened for weeks to respond to any Israeli attack by targeting U.S. bases in the region, no such attacks have taken place. (more)
Overall this type of message from President Trump tracks exactly with the careful geopolitical effort he and Secretary Rubio are working throughout this conflict.
Indeed, if you read the statement from President Trump about his hour-long conversation with Russian President Putin after the Israeli strikes began, you can see a similar pattern.
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You don’t really have to analyze President Trump very much to understand where his thinking is at any moment. The Trump Doctrine is not complicated. We only need to read, listen and accept things as they are.