Media: Trump Relies On A Tight Circle Of Advisers Weighing Strikes On Iran
- 20.06.2025, 12:39
Specific names have been named.
U.S. President Donald Trump is increasingly relying on a small group of advisers to provide him with critical information as he weighs whether to order military action in Iran against its nuclear program.
About this NBC News was told by two Defense Department officials and a senior administration official.
Although Trump regularly asks a wide range of people what they think he should do, he tends to make many decisions with a small number of administration officials.
These people include Vice President J.D. Vance, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also interim national security adviser, among others, a senior administration official said.
Trump also relies on his Middle East envoy Steve Whitkoff when weighing decisions that fall within his portfolio, the official said.
Deciding whether to pull the United States directly into a war with Iran, Trump has widened his circle in some ways and narrowed it in others. He has sidelined Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who opposes U.S. strikes on Iran, and is not reaching out to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of the decision-making process, according to both Defense Department officials and a senior administration official.
Defense Department spokesman Shawn Parnell denied the allegation that Hegseth was not actively involved in the process.
"That statement is absolutely false. The secretary talks to the president several times a day every day and was with the president in the Situation Room this week," Parnell said.
Trump is listening to Gen. Dan Kaine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Eric Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the interlocutors said.
Unlike virtually every president before him since World War II, Trump does not rely on senior officials to carefully prepare foreign policy and military options and then discuss them with him in a structured, deliberative way, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
He discusses foreign policy with officials in his administration, as well as with a host of foreign leaders and contacts outside the government. But these discussions are more informal and free-flowing. As a result, officials or top military commanders probably have fewer opportunities to question his assumptions or express concerns about a course of action, the sources said.