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History buffs: the White House hosted a fascinating call yesterday with 3 administration officials who gave a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Iran talks & why Trump ordered strikes hours earlier
It’s a first draft of history, so follow 🧵 👇
Post 1/10
2/10
First: shameless plug for the story @BarakRavid & I did for @axios that was partly based on this briefing (as did others)
Our story also relied on other insiders who laid out for us the parallel tracks Trump pursued before attacking Iran
axios.com/2026/03/01/tru…
3/10 In keeping with common practice, all the officials spoke on background to the news media
Here, senior Official 1 laid out the case for why Iran is/was a threat and how the U.S. believed Iran was planning to strike first
4/10 Official 1 said Trump ultimately had “no choice” and that Iran’s ballistic missile program was too much of a threat to US bases and allies in the region
5/10 Official 2 said Iran refused to address terrorist “proxies”
The US, the official said, was “very blunt” in talks with Iran, which was “very very weak” from
✅protests it brutally suppressed
✅a bad economy
✅the damage from last year’s U.S.-Israel bombing campaign
6/10 Official 2 said Trump sent the military to the region to show how serious he was, but Iran was not negotiating in good faith
Specifically, the official said, Iran rebuffed an offer of free nuclear fuel from the U.S. because Iran wanted to enrich uranium for military uses
7/10 Official 3 said US intelligence showed how Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program after the Midnight Hammer strikes —and how Iran’s own plan showed it sought “enrichment capability that was roughly five times more” than needed for civilian use
8/10 Official 3 said the IR-6 centrifuges Iran was making showed its commitment to enriching uranium
And, the person said, the Tehran Research Reactor (which wasn’t hit in June) was part of a program “designed to deceive” the outside world re: Iran’s nuclear weapons program
9/10 Official 2 closed by summing up the mindset of the Trump White House:
“one of the rules of deal-making is that you have to know very quickly if there's a deal to do or not … [but the US] was met with games, tricks, stall-tactics”
10/10 These are unrebutted statements shared here to show how Trump’s braintrust thought about the Iran talks & justify military action
It’s shared as a 1st draft of history that people should know
Future reporting will either support or refute it in whole or in part
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