Alexander Ward

We do know that officials are preparing just a lot of options for him.

Whenever Trump is ready to make a decision on what he wants to do, things will move.

We're a bit of a standstill.

I mean, he's been pretty open about wanting to do something.

And he's used pretty forceful language, including telling the Iranians, you know, if you start shooting at protesters, we'll shoot too.

Signaling that Americans in Iran should probably get out of the country, which is usually a sign of things to come.

We know that the president has been briefed by some senior officials on a suite of options available to him.

Trump said no to the diplomatic options, in which case it leaves him with a range of quote unquote non-kinetic options.

So that's cyber attacks, sanctions, basically anything that isn't military force and then also military force.

We know that Tuesday morning, Trump did not attend a meeting of senior officials, which he was expected to attend.

We do know that officials are preparing just a lot of options for him.

Whenever Trump is ready to make a decision on what he wants to do, things will move.

They wouldn't want more instability in the region.

If the U.S.

were to attack Iran and the Iranians would almost assuredly retaliate against American forces in the region, possibly Israel as well, that would likely incite an American or Israeli response.

And that could spiral out of control.

And so if you're the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris, the last thing you want is stability.

war in your region, on your doorstep, and one that could completely get out of hand.

But Trump likely feels emboldened if he were to pursue the military course.

We don't know if he will for a couple of reasons.