Earlier Tuesday, Sputnik reported that Trump, speaking to reporters before his trip to Louisiana, outright denied the NYT report detailing the updated military plan for how the US will deal with Iran amid Tehran's alleged increase in aggression in the Middle East.
"Would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we're not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we'd send a hell of a lot more troops than that," Trump said in response to questions about the story.
Interestingly enough, the outlet Trump admonished and branded as "fake news" is the same newspaper that published his national security adviser's 2015 op-ed, entitled "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran." As if the title were not enough, the piece itself discusses how Iran's "nuclear proliferation" should have been dealt with in a "vigilant" manner by the Obama administration. Addressing his op-ed two years later in a Fox News interview with Gretchen Carlson, Bolton even doubled down, saying "the earlier you strike, the more damage you can do."
Despite the president's denials, it would appear administration officials' comments to the NYT actually align with Bolton's own words and sense of urgency when it comes to dealing with Iran and its nuclear capabilities.
