Senior official makes astonishing claim on 'doomed' war: 'We went in with no real mission'
Far Left
A senior Trump administration official made a stunning claim Sunday regarding the U.S. war against Iran, telling Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng that the conflict not only began without “real” direction, but that it may very well come back to bite the administration later this year.“It was doomed from the very start,” the senior Trump official told Zeteo, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We went in with no real mission and we all knew that. Now we have to spend the next five months hoping voters don’t b----slap us for it.”Launched in late February, Trump’s war against Iran began with a number of different objectives. Trump explicitly called for regime change just moments after launching his surprise attack on Iran. He’s also claimed the top war objective has been to ensure Iran does not have the capability to create a nuclear weapon.And yet, despite Trump’s list of war objectives, his top officials – at least, according to the senior Trump official who spoke with Zeteo – were largely directionless in the early days of the war. Another U.S. official told Zeteo that they and their colleagues knew almost immediately that the war would end in failure.“It made me say: We lost. That’s it. And the war had only just begun,” the official told Zeteo, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. “I don’t care if you were for or against this thing, if you’re the commander-in-chief, if you go to war, you can’t start thinking about cutting and running that early.”
President Donald Trump appeared to threaten Iranian peace negotiators with assassination Sunday in a “bonkers” phone call with Fox News’ Trey Yingst, the details of which Yingst revealed on air just moments later.Last week, Trump officially agreed to a tentative peace deal with Iran, giving the two parties 60 days to finalize a more permanent agreement to end hostilities. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland Sunday to meet with an Iranian delegation of negotiators led by Speaker Mahammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghci.However, after Iranian military officials announced on Saturday that they would, again, close the Strait of Hormuz due to violations of the tentative peace deal, Trump suggested, Yingst said, that the Iranian negotiators may not “make it back” to their home country.“President Trump tells Fox News he spoke with Iranian officials overnight and said ‘you close it and you won’t have a country,’” Yingst said, recalling his phone call with Trump held moments earlier. “He went on to tell these officials, ‘you won’t even make it back to your f---ing country.’”Whether Trump’s remarks suggested he may order the Iranian negotiators assassinated before their return home remains unclear, though multiple Iranian negotiators have been assassinated throughout the duration of the U.S. war against Iran, such as Ali Larijani, the former speaker of the Iranian Parliament who was killed in March in an Israeli airstrike."We'll take over the rest of your country ... I'll blow the shit out of them" -- here is Trey Yingst's entire segment about the bonkers phone call he says he had with Trump this morning that apparently included threats to assassinate Iran's leadership, impose draconian US tolls… pic.twitter.com/RLi9bos14Q— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 21, 2026
On Monday, Trump announced beginning concepts of a plan to discuss an outline of understanding on how to end the war in Iran. It was Trump’s 39th such announcement since he started the war.Israeli leaders, ostensible partners in Trump’s war, are now convinced that Trump’s MOU with Iran makes Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal look perfect in comparison, after Trump tore that deal up, calling it "a deal at the highest level of incompetence" and "the worst deal ever negotiated." Obama’s 2015 deal featured highly detailed, multi-decade uranium enrichment caps and verification protocols, while the core mechanisms of Trump’s MOU remain unfinalized and deferred for 60-days. Although Trump’s MOU may pause the fighting he started, it has not established any permanent, legally binding nuclear dismantlement or the long-term inspection protocols Trump initially demanded, and it includes a plan to hand Iran up to $300 billion in damages. The biggest achievement will be the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, is simply a return to the prewar status quo.Fox News, after promoting Trump’s attacks on the 2015 Iran deal, reported the MOU saying, Trump “deserves credit for bringing this conflict to this point.” Fox News manipulated Trump into Iran Fox may be reluctant to criticize an end to a costly war it encouraged. Fox News and its hawkish hosts played an aggressive role in pushing Trump toward greater military force in Iran — a troubling dynamic critics call a "doom loop" between the White House and the network, a self-reinforcing feedback cycle where the administration's grievances and policies prioritize media spectacle over governance, which in turn shapes presidential policy and messaging.As early as June 2025, Fox talking heads pushed for war with Iran, encouraging Trump into open conflict. Mark Levin reportedly helped push the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities by convincing Trump over lunch that the country was just days away from getting a nuclear weapon. When a fragile ceasefire was declared in April 2026, rather than celebrating, many Fox voices including senior security analyst Jack Keane and host Brian Kilmeade demanded it be broken. These voices agitated for the Trump administration and Israel to resume aggressive bombing campaigns rather than continue diplomatic negotiations, demanding Trump restart the war and, in their words, "finish the job." Host Ainsley Earhardt even told Trump that Americans were supportive of escalating aggression in Iran, which was not true.Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, and Jesse Watters all floated the idea of flooding Iran with small arms to provoke an uprising. Kilmeade, one of the network's most prominent hawks and co-host of Fox & Friends, proposed relentless U.S. strikes against Iranian targets to "open up the strait," "grab the uranium," and "target bad actors," an apparent embrace of assassination. Other Fox News hosts also pushed Trump to seek regime change in Iran, hosting retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who called for "putting boots on the ground" and for the U.S. to seize Iranian territory. This was not commentary or news, it was Fox television personalities directly shaping foreign policy at the highest level.The doom loop is dangerousWhat makes this dynamic especially fraught is the structural relationship between Fox and the Trump administration. Trump has appointed more than two dozen former Fox News hosts into administration positions, blurring the line between media and government in an unprecedented way. When Trump calls into Fox & Friends, he is not just doing an interview — he is engaging a network with an inherent interest in promoting conflict and spectacle. Fox hosts also manipulate Trump with hyperbolic praise: when Trump ordered military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Sean Hannity said the strikes would "go down in history as one of the greatest military victories," while other hosts claimed Trump deserved "six Nobel Peace Prizes" and a spot on Mount Rushmore. Trump went on to demand—and expect— both honors.Fox's lockstep promotion of Trump's war reflects the network's calculated plan to keep MAGA enraged and engaged. War framed as a righteous confrontation with a Judeo-Christian undertones is good television. It generates ratings, emotional investment, and brand loyalty. It is what happens when the line between journalism and political advocacy dissolves. A network that functions as an echo chamber for a sitting president, with hosts who propose military strikes rather than analyze them, and treats war as a network ratings strategy, has abdicated its responsibility to the public and should be held to account. The feedback loop between Fox and the White House helped produce a war that cost American lives, roiled the global economy, and left our allies disgusted. Even if Trump’s MOU miraculously holds, analysts predict the global economy will take months and even years to recover.
The patrols have helped push cartels and smugglers into more remote areas. But analysts have voiced concerns that the border missions will distract from training, drain resources and undermine readiness.
Iran's president vowed Sunday that the Islamic republic will not give up its right to enriched uranium as part of the peace deal with the US — but noted that the deal could save the country's economy.
NBC’s Garrett Haake, filling in for Kristen Welker as Moderator of Meet the Press, joins Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist to discuss the reaction from Americans and some of President Donald Trump’s allies to his handling of the Iran war. “Only about one-third of the country say they support how the President has handled the war so far. He needs the country to be with him on how to handle the peace, or else this could be a disaster for Republicans in the midterms,” Garrett says.
