https://www.reuters.com/world/us/state-union-could-be-trumps-best-chance-sell-voters-iran-plans-2026-02-24/WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump briefly laid out his case for a possible attack on Iran in his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, saying he would not allow the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism to have a nuclear weapon.Even while assembling a massive military force in the Middle East, Trump has done little to explain to the American public why he might be leading the U.S. into its most aggressive action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.In his speech, Trump pointed to Tehran's support for militant groups, its killing of protesters and the country's missile and nuclear programs as threats to the region and the United States."The (Iranian) regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate," the Republican president said about 90 minutes into his annual address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives.He accused Iran of restarting its nuclear program, working to build missiles that "soon" would be capable of reaching the United States and of being responsible for roadside bombings that have killed U.S. service members and civilians.Iranian state media have claimed that Tehran is developing a missile capable of reaching North America.The run-up to Trump's address was overshadowed by the buildup of U.S. military forces in the Middle East and preparations for a possible conflict with Iran that could last for weeks if Tehran does not reach a deal to solve a longstanding dispute over its nuclear program.Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with negotiators' failure to reach an agreement. "They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words, 'We will never have a nuclear weapon,'" Trump said in his speech.Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production.
Trump also faulted the government in Tehran for the deaths of thousands of protesters during recent anti-government demonstrations, although the specific figure he cited - that 32,000 people had been killed - is much higher than most public estimates."What is claimed about Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile, and the number of people killed in the January unrest is nothing but the repetition of a series of big lies," Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X on Wednesday.Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a briefing on Iran hours before the speech for Congress' "Gang of Eight" - composed of the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives and the two chambers' intelligence committees."First and foremost, if they want to do something in Iran - and who the hell knows what it is - they should make it public and discuss it with the public and not keep it in secret. When you do these military operations in secret, it always causes longer wars, tragedy, more expenses and mistake(s)," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told a press conference shortly before the classified session.Advisers had urged Trump to focus on the economy, immigration and other domestic policy issues, and he devoted the lion's share of his nearly two-hour-long speech to such topics.Trump and his fellow Republicans rose to the top of U.S. politics with the passionate support of a political base that embraces his "America First" policies and vow to end an era of "forever wars" like the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.But opinion polls show the party will struggle to keep control of Congress in November's midterm election.Polls also show Americans wary of foreign conflicts. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from January showed 69% of Americans agreed with a statement the U.S. should only use its military when facing a direct and imminent threat, while 18% disagreed and the rest weren't sure or didn't answer the question.
Trump ordered strikes on Iran last year, claiming in July that they had "obliterated" the country's nuclear facilities. His aides have claimed more recently that Iran is very close to having the ability to make nuclear bombs.Trump addressed the issue in Tuesday's speech, saying, "They (Iran's leaders) want to start all over again, and are, at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions."Trump said he preferred to make peace, listing a range of worldwide conflicts he takes credit for ending, or easing."As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must," Trump said.
>>1491737How will liggerals advocate for austere religious scholars this time?
>>1491737president of war is peace
>>1491737Enough with the feminist puppet governments that are all going to fail. Take a hint.
>>1491742>This is how the warmongers are framing the next republican forever war
Trump is daddy
>>1491742How was your bar mitzvah?
>>1491742As a Christian conservative, I respect the austere religious values of Iran and putting woman in their place.
>>1491737Wow we are bringing democracy to these savages and introducing LGBT principles. All at the low low cost of protecting pedophiles (of which the epstein files are a hoax) and providing a small monthly donation of a few billion taxdollars to israel (this is how we drain the swamp).I think this is a good deal and we should sacrifice as many american lives as necessary to ensure this is front page news.
>>1491794>He respects IslamNGMI.
>>1491796If Trump is covering for pedos by not prosecuting the files, why did Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's Attorney General never prosecute pedos?
>>1491805Did they deny the files exist? Also if you wanna throw Garland under the bus too, be my guest. They all gotta pay.
>>1491808I think Merrick Garland did deny the files existedWhich is why he never had to answer questions about the files like Pam Bondihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_8jHpldg94He testified before congress for 4.5 hours and not one question about Epstein, or his progress on prosecuting pedos in the files
>>1491809>He testified before congress for 4.5 hours and not one question about Epstein, or his progress on prosecuting pedos in the filesThat's on Congress, though to be fair, neither he nor Biden raised the question then tried to shut the book completely after saying how much there was.
>>1491811Again I don't think that is true.I think Donald Trump has released more of the Epstein files than Joe Biden did.We've had multiple waves of document dumps, which we didn't have under the last president.
>>1491805Yes this. The president who campaigned on releasing the epstein files, is found in the epstein files and is now protecting those in the epstein files has no culpability because muh biden
>>1491813When you say Donald Trump is found in the epstein files what do you mean?Were there emails from Donald Trump or to Donald Trump from Jeffrey Epstein?
>>1491796Nah, we'll just nuke em. Trump isn't going to nation build, he's going to kill most of them then let them figure it out afterward.
>>1491814I mean I want to win the midterm elections and I think this will help my chances even though it's obfuscating the real Epstein collaborators such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and others.
>>1491813>because muh bidenIt's because it would destroy the United States. Actually and unironically.
>>1491837that's the same argument nixon used to keep his oval office recordings secret, and it only worked for so long
>>1491838They're not comparable.Most people don't realize the implicates of the files we already have, e.g that voting doesn't matter anymore due to the fact that all US politicians are held hostage by an international blackmail scheme. Whatever they're hiding must be worse than that.
>>1491849you say that but a member of the royal family just got arrested the other day
>>1491837Good. Maybe the US needs a hard reset
>>1491851Fucking this. The idea that "oh these people will never be punished" literally is the main thing preventing them from being punished. Don't let their fucking manufactured apathy stop them from facing consequences. We can and will throw these fucks where they belong.
>>1491851>a memberAnon are you highIt's the entire political class of the western world that's implicated not just one guyThe files also confirmed the existence of blood libel among jewish billionaires. Why the fuck do you think arresting prince andrew is progress in the slightest
>>1491855it's not every single politician, if that's your argument you're just a shill spreading black propaganda
>>1491855>blood libeloh. yeah, you're a shill
>>1491852Why would you want trump to commence the great reset?Wouldn't you prefer someone you voted for to flip that switch??
>>1491860life is more than the memes you've heard of
From the last three hours:>Saudi Arabia boosts oil output, exports for US attack on Iran contingencyhttps://www.reuters.com/business/energy/saudi-arabia-boosts-oil-output-exports-us-attack-iran-contingency-sources-say-2026-02-25/>Rubio says Iran poses a “very grave threat” to the United States, is pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles, and is attempting to develop conventional weapons designed to target Americahttps://x.com/FaytuksNetwork/status/2026795545080324332https://x.com/clashreport/status/2026800968768045323>US sees evidence Iran is trying to rebuild nuclear programhttps://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/vp-vance-says-us-sees-evidence-iran-is-trying-rebuild-nuclear-weapon-2026-02-25/
>>1491860Because America is beyond saving if someone like Trump can be openly corrupt without consequence and politicians like Pelosi can do all the insider trading they want without investigation. The entire system needs to be burnt down and rebuilt
>>1491857No, you're uninformed.Epstein was having 'jerky' walked to his office and having it cooked up for him at all hours, transporting it in freezer bags across the globe, and having it served to guests for full meals.You can look through the files yourself if you don't believe me.
>>1491876no, i'm adequately informed through your posts that you're not worth taking seriously
>>1491877>not worth taking seriouslyThe federal government is the primary source you abject fucking retard. They've admitted this was real. And even if the political class didn't individually go on the island, the ones who did know refused to disclose this info to the public for twenty years.
>>1491878your cherrypicked interpretation doesn't mean shit to me shill anon, i'm more concerned with the parts of the epstein files that don't cater to your magical thinking
>>1491879You mean the ones that you specifically choose to believe?People like you are the reason why the Epstein files were so hard to talk about for the last twenty years. You can be shown primary evidence and your only recourse is to say 'well that just doesn't seem likely to me', and then go about your day like your own incredulity is the only thing stopping these things from being real.
>>1491882>just trust my elders of zion fairy tales and stop looking at the pedophiles!no
>Iran>Canada>GreenlandWhat would be the most based war for Trump to start?
>>1491898here's your attention faggot
>>1491898All of them, really. Hopefully not at the same time. The rest of the world is going to have to square with the fact that they need America, but America does not need them.
>>1491898Was with Iran only serves only Israel.Greenland has the population of a small country and mostly white.Canada is filled with communists and they threatened the US recently. So the choice is obvious.
So Cuba just shot some people on a US boat, is the Iran invasion postponed to posture against Cuba or are they just going to ignore the shootings?
>>1491900>>1491905stop talking to yourself esl shill
>America does not need themImagine being a third world shill paid by Americans to post this shitprime comedy
>>1491906Rubio is already playing it down so seems like they're not in a hurry to move against Cuba yet.
>>1491916I thought Rubio would salivate over a chance to strike against Cuba lol.Maybe they'd even forget about this after a week cause that's longer than the attention span of this administration but we'll see.
>>1491918I haven't seen them deny Cuba's claim that their ship was fired on after informing the boaters they were in Cuban waters, I assume there's video evidence or something equally damningMaybe they're not dumb enough to immediately start shouting that its okay to fire on law enforcement officials doing their job
>>1491920I guarantee you it was some absolute fucking retards basically telling Cuban's border patrol to go fuck themselves because they're american and can do whatever they want. The type of shit that it legit would make them look worse to defend than not.
>>1491920I really doubt that they would care if Cuba had an actually good reason to shoot. Even if the boat was legit trespassing and refused to retreat, Trump and co might still try to spin it as an attack on innocent patriots.They shot up that Minnesota women and called her a domestic terrorist so I don't put this as below them. I don't even like protestors but they were really trying to spin her as something she wasn't.
>>1491906Given the lack of saber rattling by trump's goons, all signs point to the people on the boat being US backed agitators that got caught by Cuba's boarder patrol and they thought they could win in a gun fight.
>>1491928>>1491929>>1491930>They were literal fucking terrorists and one of survivors is claiming they were sent from the US to do an armed infiltrationholy shit.
>>1491932>budget knockoff bay of pigsassuming the confession isn't fake and gay
>>1491933Given trump is a neocon on steroids and even tried to undermine the Canadian government by secretly meeting with far right separatists, the Cubans have more credibility than him.
