Ben Rhodes

Not good.

Okay, so Trump is going to meet with his team to review options today.

Ben, let's try to figure out what those could be.

A bunch of news outlets have tried to report out what the menu could look like.

They suggest it could range from finding ways to boost anti-government voices online, some sort of cyber attack on Iran's military and intelligence services, more sanctions, and then all the way to direct military strikes on the regime online.

The Wall Street Journal said Trump is leaning towards airstrikes, but his options may be more limited because he redeployed the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier from the Middle East to the Caribbean.

It sucks when you're trying to do a regime change and you just can't find a aircraft carrier line around.

But so still, we can hit them with the U.S.

long range bombers that can basically fly out of anywhere, as we saw yesterday.

um, last year, especially given that Israel took out their air defenses.

So Ben Trump is, he's painted himself into a corner here.

He has to do something.

The question is what, um, the nuclear site bombs were like, that was a discreet target.

There was a clear objective.

It's not clear to me what airstrikes stop a government crackdown on protesters, but like, what are you looking for and what do you think might be effective?

And then I guess, how worried are you about Iran threatening to respond?

Those are average people, right?

Well, they pull the trigger.

You never know.

Yeah, he said he's going to put a 25% tariff on any country that does business with Iran, which, you know, would really hammer the Chinese.