EXCLUSIVE — Former national security adviser John Bolton said he believes President Donald Trump is “conflicted” over whether to involve the United States in Israel’s operations targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The U.S. military has increased its presence in the Middle East, giving the president more options should he decide to participate in offensive operations against Tehran. To date, the U.S. has only aided Israel in intercepting Iranian-fired projectiles headed for the Jewish state.
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“I may do it,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “I may not do it.” The president called for Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” on Tuesday, though Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, said in response that any U.S. intervention would be met with “irreparable damage.”
Israel is hoping for the U.S. to get involved in attacking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure because the U.S. has a “bunker-busting” bomb that is more powerful than anything in Israel’s arsenal. It is unclear whether even the U.S.’s Massive Ordnance Penetrator would destroy Iran’s Fordow facility, which is deeply embedded in a mountain.
“I think [Trump is] very conflicted,” Bolton told the Washington Examiner. “He’s not the star of the show, and he doesn’t like that. People sometimes don’t appreciate how much he wants a Nobel Peace Prize. He’s not going to get it for solving the Russian-Ukraine war. He tried with India and Pakistan. He’s now failed in reaching an agreement with Iran.”
“So his alternative is, if he can’t win the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s considering giving bunker-busters to Israel, but he doesn’t want to be left on the sidelines if Israel wins this war,” Bolton added. “I just honestly think, at this point, Trump himself, he’s just wrestling with the dilemma. He doesn’t want to be in this place. He wants to be the center of attention, sort of automatically, and that’s not the way this is working out.”
The president has warned for years that Iran could not obtain a nuclear weapon, though there have been disputes as to whether it was actively pursuing one. The Trump administration pursued negotiations with Tehran, though little progress was made in the 60-day time period the president set. Israel launched its opening salvo against Iran one day after that deadline passed.
Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, though the two have had a public falling out since then. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is known to be an Iran hawk.
There is a divide among the president’s base over whether the U.S. should involve itself in another conflict in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his goals for the war against Iran earlier this week, saying Israel’s “three main objectives” are “the elimination of the nuclear program, the elimination of ballistic missile production capability, and the elimination of the axis of terrorism,” referring to Iranian-backed militant groups in the Middle East.
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He did not specifically identify regime change, the overthrowing of the Iranian government, as one of those goals, though there have been hints from both Netanyahu and Trump that assassinating Khamenei could be on the table.
“This problem never really will be solved until the regime of the ayatollahs is overturned,” Bolton explained, adding, “I think he is still allergic to the idea of regime change.”