WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he “might have forced Israel’s hand” in launching the war on Iran that has already cost the lives of six American troops. 

Trump’s statement came less than a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the United States joined the campaign to protect American troops after Israel’s planned strike.

“We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” Trump told reporters. “… and I didn’t want that to happen. So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand, but Israel was ready, and we were ready, and we’ve had a very, very powerful impact, because virtually everything they have has been knocked out.”

Trump made the comments prior to a bilateral White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to understand the sudden war. 

Merz said Germany is “on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away” — though administration officials have maintained the conflict is not about regime change, but rather about destroying Iran’s conventional missile stockpiles and production, and thwarting any nuclear ambitions. 

Iran has launched numerous missiles and drones since the killing Saturday of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The strikes have caused damage across the Middle East, including to the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

During a previously scheduled hearing Tuesday to question Undersecretary of Defense Policy Elbridge Colby on the administration’s national defense strategy, Senate Democrats pressed for the justification for war with Iran. 

Sen. Angus King, an independent of Maine who caucuses with Democrats, homed in on Rubio’s statements Monday that the U.S. joined the war to preempt retaliatory attacks on American troops in the region, following Israel’s planned strikes on Iran’s leadership compound. Earlier, administration officials said U.S. intelligence was heavily involved in planning Israel’s offensive.

“I find it very disturbing that we’re committing this nation to war based upon a decision by … a staunch ally, and I’m a supporter of Israel,” King said. “I don’t think anybody should drive our decision to go to war, but the interest of the United States.”

“The president made our decision,” Colby replied.

GOP falls in line

Congress, meanwhile, is poised to vote this week on a War Powers Act resolution that has drawn limited Republican support to stop Trump’s unilateral military actions in Iran without congressional authorization. 

Lawmakers are largely split along party lines in their support for the military action, with Republicans falling in line behind Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Monday the measure will likely fail in the House. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is the lone Republican sponsor of the House version of the legislation.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., defended the administration’s initiation of war in Iran and chastised “grandstanding” allegations that Trump broke the law in not first seeking congressional authorization.

“This is the first president in seven presidencies that actually did something about the thorn that constantly came after us. And now you criticize him, you say it’s illegal. It’s not,” Mullin said Tuesday during the Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing.

“How about we say, ‘thank you, Mr. President, for finally getting rid of this nuisance, this murderer, this sponsor of terror,’” Mullin said. 

Virginia’s Kaine says GOP ‘nervous about voting for a war’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., lead sponsor of the Senate’s War Powers Act bill, criticized Mullin for suggesting “that the angst on this side of the aisle is because we don’t like President Trump.”

“He has misstated that concern. I think I can speak for most of my colleagues who have concerns, and say our concern is this, have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the Middle East?” Kaine said.

Kaine said during a brief interview that Republicans who support Trump’s war in Iran should put an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, on the floor to formally give it Congress’ stamp of approval. 

“And the fact that there has been a reluctance to put AUMFs on the table tells me that while Republicans don’t want to be contrary to the president, they’re also nervous about voting for a war,” Kaine said. “If you’re nervous about voting for the war, well then, think what that says to the troops who are risking their lives. That anxiety should lead you to question whether it’s a good idea or not.”

Kaine said the 2001 AUMF, which Congress wrote somewhat broadly following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and is still in effect, doesn’t cover Trump’s military actions in Iran.  

“The president has not cited that,” he said. “And we all agree that Iran was not covered by the ‘01 AUMF. It was meant to cover non-state terrorist groups, not sovereign nations.”

Lawmakers were set to receive closed-door briefings on the war from administration officials later Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday he expects war with Iran will continue however long it takes to achieve his objectives, which include eliminating the country’s missile program, preventing its leaders from building a nuclear weapon and ensuring it cannot fund terrorism.

“Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks,” he said at a Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “But we have capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it. Whatever.”

His remarks followed an early morning briefing by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who emphasized to those in attendance the U.S. war on Iran will continue unabated on Trump’s terms, with more troops on the way and more casualties expected.

Speaking in public for the first time since the United States and Israel launched a massive attack early Saturday, Hegseth would not specify a timeline or exit strategy for the mission.

“We will finish this on America first conditions of President Trump’s choosing, nobody else’s, as it should be,” Hegseth said.

By 4 p.m. Eastern, U.S. Central Command had updated the death toll of American service members to six, though little detail was provided. Their names, ranks and hometowns have not been disclosed.

Trump mentioned the U.S. military troops who had been killed as a reason to continue with his war.

“Today, we grieve for the … heroic American service members who have been killed in action, and send our love and support to their families,” he said. “In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people, and a threat, indeed it is.”

Trump said the objectives of the conflict with Iran “are clear.”

Military forces, he said, will destroy the country’s missile capabilities and its navy, prevent it from building a nuclear weapon and block its leaders from sponsoring terrorism.  

Trump did not say whether he would seek approval from Congress, which holds the power to declare war under the Constitution. And he did not take questions from reporters as he left the Medal of Honor ceremony about whether he would send U.S. ground troops into Iran.

Hegseth at his briefing commented on the three U.S. service members whose deaths were announced Sunday. The secretary said that “a squirter” — apparently referring to an offensive missile or drone — was not intercepted by air defense systems.

“And in that particular case, (it) happened to hit a tactical operation center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons,” Hegseth told reporters.

The Associated Press reported Sunday the troops were U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Kuwait.

Congress heads toward war powers votes

Votes are expected this week in both the U.S. Senate and House on war powers resolutions attempting to check Trump’s power to engage in armed conflict.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during an afternoon floor speech that lawmakers need to “pick a side” this week, urging them to reject what he described as “a war of choice, not necessity.”  

“Donald Trump has just launched America into a full-scale conflict against one of our most fervent adversaries without a plan, without an end game and without authorization from Congress, or even a debate in full view of the American people,” he said. 

Instead of engaging in “military escapades,” Schumer said, Trump should focus on implementing policies that would bring down the cost of living and focus on ensuring Americans have good-paying jobs. 

“They don’t want a war that leads to lost American lives and that costs billions and billions of taxpayer dollars,” he said. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was much more supportive of Trump’s military endeavors, saying the “administration relentlessly pursued a diplomatic solution to the threat posed by Iran,” but that country’s leaders “refused diplomatic off-ramps.” 

“Iran has relentlessly pursued the development of its own nuclear program despite repeated violations identified by the international atomic watchdog, the (International Atomic Energy Agency),” Thune said. “Iran is also aggressively growing the range and inventory of its ballistic missiles and launchers, an inventory that is already the largest in the region. Combine that with a navy that aims to threaten a key shipping channel and it is clear that Iran poses a serious risk to America’s national security interests as well as those of our allies and partners.”

Thune and Schumer both said their prayers were with the families, loved ones and fellow service members of the U.S. troops killed so far in the war. 

House war powers vote

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said following a closed-door briefing that he believes the vote on the House floor later this week will fail, allowing Trump to keep pursuing war in Iran. 

“I am certainly hopeful and I believe we do have the votes to put it down,” he said. “That’s going to be a good thing for our country and our security and civility.”

Johnson said he doesn’t believe that Trump needed to seek congressional authorization to begin the war, arguing that “the president was acting well within his authority” since he believes U.S. military actions were “defensive in nature and design and necessity.”

Johnson said that since Israel was going to strike Iran and that intelligence sources believed Iran would have retaliated by striking both Israel and the United States, Trump acted appropriately when he began the war without lawmakers’ sign off. 

There is a chance that if the war drags on the Trump administration will ask Congress to provide additional funding for military operations, but Johnson said “it will be some time before we can put a final number on it.”

Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, said after the same briefing that there was “no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians.

“There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States then we are in uncharted territory.”

Rubio: ‘Hardest hits are yet to come’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday afternoon that the administration has “complied with the law 100%” in briefing congressional leadership ahead of Saturday’s attack, and notifying all of Congress within 48 hours afterward.

“If they want to take a war powers vote, they can do that. They’ve done that. They’ve done that a bunch of times,” Rubio said. He added: “There’s no law that requires the president to have done anything with regards to this.”

The secretary told reporters “there absolutely was an imminent threat” that Iran would attack U.S. troops in the region upon Israel striking Tehran.

“We were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded, because the Department of War assessed that if we did that … we would suffer more casualties and more deaths,” Rubio said. 

“We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn’t act preemptively to prevent more casualties,” he said as he continued on his way to a classified briefing with the congressional leadership and heads of intelligence committees.

When pressed by a journalist on whether the U.S. was forced to act because of Israel, Rubio said, “no matter what, ultimately, this operation needed to happen.”

Rubio said the U.S. focus is narrowly on destroying Iran’s current conventional weapons capabilities, which he repeatedly claimed are a “shield where they can hide behind” as they continue to build up a nuclear weapons program.

“I’m not going to give away the details of our tactical efforts, but the hardest hits are yet to come from the US military. The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,” Rubio said.

Caine says more troops on the way

Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, at the briefing with Hegseth, said more U.S. troops and airpower were expected to arrive in the region Monday.

“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that (U.S. Central Command) and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine said.

Hegseth said the mission, dubbed by the administration as Operation Epic Fury, is “laser focused” on eliminating Iran’s nuclear ambitions by destroying its offensive missile stockpile and production facilities, as well as its naval and security infrastructure.

“We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically with every passing day. Our capabilities get stronger and Iran’s get weaker. We set the terms of this war from start to finish,” Hegseth said.

The secretary sidestepped a question on how much of Iran’s infrastructure has been destroyed since Saturday. Caine said assessing what remains of Iran’s long-range strike capabilities “will take some time.”

Trump reiterated that a bombing campaign he initiated earlier this year “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, though he said the country’s leaders, many of whom are now dead, “ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

“In addition, the regime’s conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas,” he said. “The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.”

Iranians began rebuilding the facilities bombed by the U.S. and Israel in June, but  authorities had blocked international inspectors from assessing the areas, according to a PBS report citing an anonymous U.S. official.

Iran retaliation

The conflict rapidly spread Sunday and into Monday across the Middle East, as Iran launched retaliatory missiles and drones following the targeted fatal strike by Israeli defense forces and U.S. intelligence of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Monday, Iran attacked key energy infrastructure, interrupting oil and gas production in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two of the world’s largest suppliers, according to international media outlets. 

Gulf nations, usually safe havens and luxury getaways in the volatile region, ground to a halt as strikes and debris from intercepted missiles damaged the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, and nearby iconic tourist destinations, according to Reuters. 

The U.S. State Department issued directives for Americans in the region, including a shelter-in-place order Sunday for all U.S. embassy staff in Qatar as airspace remained closed.

Jets go down over Kuwait, deaths in Iran and Israel

No deaths were reported after three U.S. F-15 fighter jets crashed over Kuwait Monday in an apparent friendly fire incident, according to U.S. Central Command. Video of an apparent U.S. fighter jet falling from the sky circulated on social media Monday.

The fighting spread to Lebanon after Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters fired rockets into Israel. Israel returned fire, including in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Several media outlets reported casualties, citing Lebanon’s health officials.

Nine people were killed Sunday in central Israel after a missile hit a synagogue bomb shelter, The Associated Press reported.

The death toll across Iran hit at least 555 since the conflict began, according to Iranian Red Crescent Society figures cited by Al Jazeera. Iranian officials attributed more than 150 deaths to a strike Saturday on a school in southern Iran, according to numerous international reports.

Buildup of troops over past month

The administration began amassing thousands of troops, aircraft and naval ships over the past 30 days in the region, including relocating its largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, from its position in the southern hemisphere where U.S. troops apprehended Venezuela’s leader on Jan. 3.

The “rapid buildup,” Caine said, included service members from Wisconsin’s Army National Guard, which was operating in Kuwait and Iraq, and Air National Guard units from various states, including Vermont and Virginia.

Caine would not answer questions about the total number of U.S. troops involved.

Trump gave the final order for the attack on Friday, just before 4 p.m. Eastern, and joint strikes with Israel’s forces commenced overnight Saturday, at 9:45 a.m. Tehran time.

“The president directed, and I quote, ‘Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts, good luck,’” according to Caine.

Operations centers in Tampa, Florida and at the Pentagon directed strikes on more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, Caine said.