Trump offers four contradictory rationales for Iran war in four days

Trump and his top officials provided four shifting justifications for Operation Epic Fury in four days: preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; preemption of an imminent Iranian attack on US forces (claimed by Rubio but contradicted by the Pentagon briefing); regime change (urged by Trump then reversed by the White House within 24 hours); and dismantling Iran proxy networks. Democrats and foreign policy analysts noted that no single rationale met the legally required imminent threat standard under the War Powers Resolution.