TOI Washington correspondent: U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday offered a series of explanations for launching “Operation Epic Fury,” the devastating air strikes against Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including one confusing reason: “I caught him before he got me.“In a series of interviews with various U.S. media outlets (to name them all), Trump weaved a complex and sometimes contradictory narrative to defend a war that, according to various polls, has left Americans filled with doubt and unease. The centerpiece of the rhetorical offensive came during a Monday afternoon call with ABC News, when he was asked about specific targets against Iran’s top religious and political authority. “I caught Khamenei before he caught me,” the president bluntly told journalist Jonathan Carr. “They tried twice and I caught him first.”In other interviews, some of them brief phone calls, Trump justified a sudden escalation of violence against Iran at the end of negotiations, revealing “specific, highly classified intelligence” to one outlet showing an Iranian cell had carried out assassination attempts on U.S. soil within days, while claiming to another outlet that Iran was interfering in the U.S. election. Perhaps the most pressing claim (repeatedly reiterated in interviews with CNBC and the Washington Post) is that Iran is “weeks or even days away” from possessing a functional nuclear warhead. However, intelligence agencies have yet to reveal any clear evidence to support the accusations, even as critics suggest the president is inciting the public to provide legal cover for regime change fomented by Israel and Saudi Arabia. Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose military action against Iran, with only about a quarter of them, mostly Republicans, supporting Trump on the issue. The sheer number of interviews and social media posts Trump has given suggests Trump’s strategic attempt to “flood the news circuit” with the president’s version of events before domestic opposition solidifies. By speaking to multiple media outlets, he was able to tailor his message: Talking about “freedom for the Iranian people” to liberal outlets like The Atlantic while emphasizing “killing their navy” to more enthusiastic Fox News viewers. However, this strategy exposed serious inconsistencies. On Sunday, Trump told the New York Times that the operation followed the “Venezuela model” and meant a quick transition of power. By Monday, however, he admitted to CNN that the strike was so successful that it “eliminated most candidates for succession.” “It’s not going to be anybody we think of, because they’re all dead. The second or the third is dead,” he boasted to ABC, asserting with his trademark bravado and self-aggrandizement: “Nobody can do that but me.”Trump also revealed unexpected contacts with “one of the few remaining members” of Iran’s leadership and suggested easing sanctions for a “pragmatic” successor. In an interview, he laid out three competing post-Khamenei scenarios: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) handing over weapons to the population, Venezuelan-style beheadings that leave most bureaucrats in office, or the Iranians themselves seizing power. “We still have work to do, and we’re doing it well,” he said, claiming the battle was “quite ahead of schedule” after destroying much of the Iranian navy’s strength and decapitating its command. The beheading paradox leaves a vacuum that contradicts his earlier call for the Iranian people to “take back their country.” Without clear leadership intact, the four-week timeline Trump mentioned in an interview was met with skepticism by military analysts worried about the United States. Once again trapped in an endless conflict with no plan B. Despite the constant bombardment, the US president is still obsessed with the image of the negotiator. He claimed that remaining Iranian officials “want dialogue” despite Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council denying any agenda for dialogue. “They wanted to talk. I said ‘Too late!'” he boasted in a social media post.By keeping his message flowing — alternating between the roles of vindictive commander and peace-seeking dealmaker — Trump sought to cover all angles. If the regime falls quickly, he will claim a historic victory for freedom. He noted that he had successfully “eliminated” the “imminent threat” to protect American lives if the war continued. Currently, the world is watching as the President of the United States continues to recount a war in real time, one phone call and one social media post at a time.
