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10 April 2026, NYT’s Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman, on how Trump made the decision to destroy Iran
00:00
Of all the people on Trump’s team, Donald Trump was the most hawkish when it came to Iran.
00:06
He decided to go to war on a gut feeling, period, full stop.
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We did extensive interviews to find out how he made that decision.
00:15
On February 11th, Benjamin Netanyahu pitched the idea of joint Israel-U.S. strikes against Iran.
00:21
He lays out a very aggressive campaign to dismantle Iran’s weapons systems.
00:26
And then he also lays out some scenarios for regime change.
00:30
President Trump listened to this and he said, sounds good to me.
00:34
But what happened next was actually in some ways more interesting.
00:37
Overnight U.S. intelligence analysts very quickly went to work.
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The head of the CIA uses one word to describe the assessment of Netanyahu’s regime change scenarios.
00:48
Farcical.
00:49
Within the next few weeks, there were a number of discussions about what might come next.
00:54
There was not consensus.
00:55
These three Trump advisors show just how varied the opinions were in the administration.
01:00
The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, thought that this was a really good idea.
01:04
And it’s not a surprise.
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He was very much chosen for the idea that he believes in flexing U.S. military muscle.
01:11
Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, was, I would say, skeptical about a full-scale war,
01:16
would prefer to continue with a maximum pressure campaign,
01:19
but was also skeptical that the Iranians would agree to a deal.
01:22
So he was somewhat ambivalent.
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The most actively opposed was Vice President J.D. Vance.
01:27
He laid out various reasons why this could be complicated,
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from depleted munitions to the position it would leave the U.S. in going forward.
01:34
That it could lead to regional chaos, that it would break apart his coalition.
01:38
Many of his voters would see that as a betrayal.
01:40
On February 26th, President Trump had a final go,
01:43
no-go meeting with his team in the Situation Room.
01:46
Trump is sitting around the table with his inner circle.
01:48
It’s a very small group.
01:49
He asked what people thought.
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And Vance starts by saying, well, you know, I think it’s a bad idea,
01:55
but if you do this, I’ll support you.
01:57
Pete Hegseth remained where he was,
01:58
believing that Iran was going to have to be dealt with anyway.
02:01
Might as well do it now.
02:02
And Rubio says, if the goal is regime change, we shouldn’t do it.
02:07
But if the goal is to degrade Iran’s capabilities to wage war,
02:13
their missile program, that’s a goal that we can achieve.
02:16
At the end, when President Trump wanted to go forward.
02:20
Almost everyone deferred to the President’s gut instincts.
02:23
They’ve watched him survive being indicted, being convicted, being shot.
02:28
They had seen him beat the odds so many times
02:31
that it affects how they look at things and what might be doable.
02:35
And at 3.38 p.m. the next day,
02:38
Donald Trump ordered the start of the Iran war.
——
New drone maker partly owned by Trump sons hopes to win Pentagon contracts
11 March 2026, by Bernard Condon
NEW YORK (AP) — Among dozens of companies competing for Pentagon contracts to supply attack drones, one stands out.
Powerus is flush with cash and ballooning in size as it buys up rivals and has one other advantage: It is partly owned by President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons. …
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Gulf allies complain US didn’t notify them of Iran attacks and ignored their warnings, sources say
Powerus says there is no problem with it bidding for government money that could make the president’s sons richer.
“There’s no conflict there..” …
The public company in this case is Aureus Greenway Holdings, a Florida firm partly owned by Eric and Don Jr. that holds a few golf courses and is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Of the two oldest brothers, Don Jr., is the one most involved in federal contracting firms through a venture capital fund called 1789 Capital.
Shortly after Trump’s reelection, 1789 Capital made Don Jr. a partner and then went on a buying spree of its own, investing in 25 companies in one year. It had made only six purchases in the two years prior. …
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6:64 PM UTC, 2 April 2026
Company backed by Trump sons looks to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran
By — Bernard Condon, Associated Press
Politics Apr 3, 2026 4:17 PM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) — A drone maker backed by President Donald Trump’s two oldest sons is trying to sell to Gulf countries while they are under attack by Iran and dependent on the U.S. military led by their father.
The sales drive by Florida-based Powerus – which announced a deal last month to bring aboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began.
WATCH: Prediction markets, pardons spark questions over who’s profiting from Trump’s presidency
“These countries are under enormous pressure to buy from the sons of the president so he will do what they want,” said Richard Painter, a former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. “This is going to be the first family of a president to make a lot of money off war — a war he didn’t get the consent of Congress for.”
Powerus co-founder Brett Velicovich told The Associated Press that the company is making sales pitches that include drone demonstrations in several Gulf countries to show how its defensive drone interceptors could help them ward off Iranian attacks.
“Our team is doing many demos across the Middle East right now for our interceptors,” Velicovich said in an text exchange. “We have very incredible tech that can save lives.”
He declined to name the countries or give more details.
READ MORE: Zelenskyy says Ukraine is using drone expertise to help 5 countries against Iran attacks
The Trump brothers’ deal with Powerus could give them sizable equity stakes. Their father, as commander in chief, launched the strikes with Israel against Iran over a month ago that began the war, the impetus for why these Gulf countries now need protection. …
Founded by U.S. Army Special Operations veterans about a year ago, Powerus makes drones for commercial uses, from spreading fertilizer to putting out forest fires. But it is bulking up fast to supply drones for military uses.
The company recently raised $60 million from investors and hopes to tap additional financing by doing a “reverse merger” with a Trump company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange that owns a few golf courses in Florida. Such a merger allows a private business to quickly go public by taking over a company that already has publicly traded shares, shortening the process of filing paperwork and meeting various requirements of regular initial public offering.
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