President Donald Trump has spent more than a week scrambling to explain why he launched a deadly war on Iran, offering shifting explanations and increasingly murky comments about the endgame. But when the pressure rises and the backlash builds, Trump has a familiar instinct: find someone else to bla me. And no one is ever truly safe from that instinct — not political allies, not senior advisers and certainly not members of his own administration. One day it may be someone else. The next day, it could be anyone standing nearby. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a roundtable to “save college sports” in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images) On Monday, March 9, that instinct surfaced again during remarks to Republicans gathered for their annual policy retreat at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida. The president first tried to downplay the growing conflict with Tehran, describing his decision to launch military strikes as little more than a temporary necessity. ‘So Dumb!’: Trump Throws a Late-Night Fit Because People Won’t Say the Full Name of His Bill — But Karoline Leavitt’s On-Camera Meltdown Somehow Makes It Even Worse “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some people. And I think it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump told the audience. Later in the same remarks, Trump unleashed a torrent of names — advisers and allies he suggested had convinced him the airstrikes were necessary in the first place, even as the conflict is reportedly costing the United States billions of dollars a day. “The situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return and the United States found it intolerable, in my opinion, based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me,” Trump said, rattling off names while attempting to distance himself from a decision only a president can ultimately make. Those names included his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Then, after a brief pause, Trump pulled in his own Secretary of State as well. “Marco was so involved that I thought that they were going to attack us. I thought they would if we didn’t do this. At the time we did it, I think they had in mind to attack us,” Trump insisted, again offering no evidence that Iran had imminent plans to attack the United States. View on Threads The claim raised additional questions because both Witkoff and Kushner were still engaged in what had been described as good-faith negotiations with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear ambitions and weapons programs when Trump ordered the military strikes on Saturday, Feb. 28. To make matters worse, Pentagon officials later acknowledged in closed-door briefings to Congress that there was no intelligence indicating Iran planned an imminent attack on U.S. forces — contradicting one of the administration’s central justifications for the strikes. Despite the lack of evidence supporting a preemptive attack, the conflict has continued to escalate, with casualties already mounting. Social media erupted after Trump’s comments, with many users focusing on the moment Rubio was pulled into the blame game. “Marco’s like ‘not me, not me, leave me out of this!’ Too late, Marco. When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas,” one Threads user wrote. “Oh, I so hope Marco gets so dragged under that Greyhound that he will be thrown under, that there is no recovery,” a commenter wrote. “There it is, all those loyal boys are finding out the price of being that special pick..such an honor, right?” another chimed in. View on Threads But Trump’s casual mention of Kushner and Witkoff also raised eyebrows online, particularly because neither man holds an elected position. “Jared who? Is your son-in-law employed by the White House?” one user asked. “So Jared, who we did not elect, Steve, who was not elected, and Pete, who we did not elect… resulting in hundreds if not thousands of children and adults dying,” another user wrote. “So the two real estate investors gave him bad intel?” another user mocked. In the midst of the chaos, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was left to absorb the fallout. At the daily press briefing the following day on Tuesday, March 10, Leavitt attempted to defend Trump’s decision and insisted Iran had posed a credible threat to Americans. Trump himself had already offered shifting timelines about the alleged threat, at times claiming Iran was preparing to attack the United States within a week, and at other moments suggesting it was only days away. “Where is he getting that?” a reporter asked. Leavitt incredulously stated Trump had “a feeling” about it. “This was a feeling the President had based on facts, facts provided to him by his top negotiators who had been engaged with the Iranian regime in a good faith effort,” she insisted But CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes pushed back against Leavitt’s gaslighting, stating no other leaders, including in Israel, have stated an Iranian attack was “imminent.” Reporter: There are no U.S. Leaders or Israeli leaders who are making those same claims. So is he making this up to justify his decision to go to war?Leavitt: The president is not making anything up. Iran wanted to attack the US, and the president was not going to allow that to… pic.twitter.com/aDd1CNaYch— Acyn (@Acyn) March 10, 2026 “So is he making this up to justify his decision to go to war?” Cordes boldly pushed back on Leavitt’s lies. “The President is not making anything up, Nancy. He is looking at this every single day based on intelligence, based on facts, and based on intelligence that he himself and his negotiators have, have consumed based on their again, negotiations with the rogue Iranian regime over the past year,” Leavitt continued insisting, “Iran wanted to attack the United States of America and the President was not going to sit back and allow that to happen. He was not going to sit back and allow that to happen. And everyone in this room should be grateful for it,” Leavitt yelled. So far, at least seven Americans have been killed and hundreds of Iranians and others in neighboring countries have died. The Washington Post reported this week that Congress has been told the cost of the war in just the first two days through the use of expensive U.S. weapons was $5.6 billion as Americans struggle to make ends meet amid a growing affordability crisis. ‘Leave Me Out of This!’: Trump Starts Rattling Off the Advisers Who Dragged Him Into the Mess — Rubio Thinks He Escaped, Then Trump Takes a Quick Pause and Unleashes ...read more read less