Trump insiders appear to be running a briefing campaign against the president’s Iran war plans—and they are not being subtle about it.
Over roughly 48 hours beginning Sunday, at least five major news outlets each received strikingly similar tip-offs from anonymous U.S. officials warning that a major military operation against Iran would carry grave risks.
As the Daily Beast reported on Monday, Trump’s indecision over whether to bomb Iran is sending the Pentagon into meltdown.
The USS Gerald R. Ford—the U.S.’s largest warship, already at sea since last June—has entered the Mediterranean and is expected to be within striking distance of Iran within days. Plane-tracking data has registered multiple flights toward Diego Garcia, the U.S. military base in the Chagos Islands, south of Iran across the Arabian Sea.
The U.S. has also moved 13 guided-missile destroyers into Middle Eastern and Mediterranean waters to counter Iranian threats, according to reports. Diplomatic talks between U.S. envoys and Iranian officials are scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.
Trump’s flip-flopping appears to have led officials to begin issuing ominous briefings against an Iran strike on Sunday, when the New York Times reported that the president, 79, was weighing a limited strike “in the coming days,” citing officials and sources familiar with the administration’s internal deliberations, all of whom spoke anonymously.
By Monday, Axios had spoken to two sources with direct knowledge who said Gen. Dan Caine—the Joint Chiefs chairman and Trump’s most trusted military adviser—had privately been warning that any Iran campaign risked dragging the U.S. into a prolonged conflict. The same report revealed that Vice President JD Vance, as well as envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had each separately urged the president to give diplomacy more time.
The Washington Post then reported that Caine had made his concerns explicit at a White House meeting last Tuesday—attended by Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and adviser Stephen Miller—warning that American munitions stockpiles had been significantly drained by the defense of Israel and support for Ukraine.
The Post added that Arab nations had privately told Washington they would not permit their territory to be used for a strike, a logistical complication one unnamed former Pentagon official said was a critical obstacle.
The pattern was flagged by journalist Branko Marcetic, who posted on X: “Someone in that administration is trying to head off what they realize will be a disaster.”
The Wall Street Journal, whose account aligned closely with the Post’s, added a particularly sobering detail—that American interceptor supplies would last roughly a fortnight against a full Iranian missile assault, the Journal reported, with Patriot, THAAD, and SM-3 stockpiles already running critically low.
The Journal also reported that a prolonged conflict could imperil preparations for a future war with China.
The outlet’s account also outlined additional vulnerabilities. American pilots would face Iranian air defenses during multiple bombing runs. Iranian missiles could target U.S. troops at bases across the Middle East.
The Ford is now on course for an 11-month continuous deployment, which would set a record. The carrier has been experiencing sewage problems, and sailors, the Journal reported, are overtaxed, with some considering leaving the Navy.
The danger of overextending crews is not theoretical, the report said. It pointed to a Navy investigation into the loss of multiple fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman during Houthi operations in the Red Sea in spring 2025, which concluded that the ship’s relentless operational tempo was to blame.
Politico detailed how a defense official said that Pentagon staff had spent recent weeks going to bed expecting a 3 a.m. phone call to come in—only to wake up to their regular alarms. “That is the story of the Trump approach to war and peace,” the outlet’s Playbook newsletter reported.
The State Department on Monday ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family members of staff from the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon, amid growing fears about how Iranian-backed militia groups might strike American targets in response to any U.S. attack.
Axios disclosed that CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper, whose area of responsibility directly covers Iran, has not been invited to Trump’s Iran planning meetings—a notable departure from precedent, since Cooper’s predecessor, Gen. Erik Kurilla, regularly briefed both Trump and former President Biden.
The president furiously batted away the reporting on Monday, posting on Truth Social that it was “100 percent incorrect” that Caine opposed military action. He accused the outlets of writing “incorrectly, and purposefully so.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the president “listens to feedback from all members of his national security team, and he is always the final decision maker.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
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