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  "path": "/post/206968/trump-officials-leak-media-stop-war-iran",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-24T17:03:53.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Iran",
    "Foreign Policy",
    "United States",
    "War",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Republicans",
    "Republican Party",
    "Politics",
    "World",
    "Middle East",
    "post on X",
    "Axios",
    "_The Washington Post_",
    "CBS News",
    "_The Wall Street Journal_",
    "pushed back",
    "him] as weak or indecisive,” Ahmadi [wrote"
  ],
  "textContent": "It appears that Trump administration officials have embarked on a spree of interviews with major publications in order to talk their boss out of a military strike against Iran.\n\nIn just the last 72 hours, several stories were published undermining narratives that the U.S. is ready for war, observed Ali Ahmadi, an executive fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in a post on X Tuesday.\n\nIndeed, several stories cited anonymous sources familiar with Trump’s plans for Iran who warned about the potential for the United States to be dragged into a protracted conflict in the Middle East.\n\nTwo sources told Axios Monday that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine warned Trump and other top officials about the risks of launching a military campaign against Iran. _The Washington Post_ cited people familiar with discussions who’d told them the same thing. CBS News cited multiple sources who said that Trump was warned that military strikes against Iran wouldn’t guarantee a diplomatic deal. And _The Wall Street Journal_ reported on the prolonged misery of sailors traveling the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, after the Navy’s top admiral had pushed back on the ship’s deployment earlier this month.\n\nEither the Pentagon was hoping to provide an offroad for Trump’s massive military build-up in the Middle East, or it was trying to establish some scraps of plausible deniability before the bombs started to drop. Or perhaps, the narrative wasn’t intended for the public at all.\n\n“To be clear, the Pentagon has its own press people who go behind the White House’s back all the time to shape media narratives. Its often done to manipulate the President by having the press describe him] as weak or indecisive,” Ahmadi [wrote in another post noting that this kind of strategy was not without precedent.\n\nTrump has already pushed back on reporting that the U.S. isn’t ready to strike. In a lengthy Truth Social post Monday, the president claimed that “numerous stories” about Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine’s broad caution toward the Middle East situation were “100 percent incorrect.”",
  "title": "Trump Officials Go on Frenzied Media Tour to Try to Stop War With Iran"
}