A report in the New York Times on April 7, 2026, has revealed in vivid detail how US President Trump and his top advisers were convinced by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to start the current war against Iran. The report, by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, both Whitehouse reporters is drawn from a book written by the duo “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” It is based on interviews with top officials who remain anonymous.

According to the NYT report, Netanyahu gave an hour-long presentation on February 11, selling the idea that Iran was ready for a regime change and a military attack by US and Israel could destroy its nuclear capabilities, crush its missile programme, kill the top leaders and catalyse a popular uprising that would end the regime. Following this, Trump held extensive consultations with his political and intelligence officials over the next weeks. Finally, on February 27, he gave the green light for “Operation Epic Fury”  

The kind of details that the NYT report has indicates a level of high authenticity, further confirmed by the fact that there has been no denial or challenge to it yet from the Whitehouse. It is also not surprising or new to hear that Trump and his coterie are closely aligned with the Israeli point of view. But, it is rare to find detailed evidence of the exact line of thinking of various individuals – and their kowtowing to Trump – as they lead the US into a war that is largely unacceptable to most people in the US, and to most across the world.

Of course, since this is the NYT, there is no criticism of the blood lust of Netanyahu who is responsible for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and West Bank, nor is there any questioning of the Zionist project supported and propped up by US for over seven decades now. Also, there is no mention of the aggression and wars imposed by the US on dozens of countries driven by its own imperialist interests.

But still, the NYT report does reveal the way US and its ally in war, Israel function, the nuts and bolts of their decision-making process and the deep contempt in which they hold their own institutions, as also the sovereignty of other countries.

Let us look at some of the aspects brought out in the NYT report.

Netanyahu’s ‘Hard Sell’

The meeting with Netanyahu was attended by the closest members of the Trump coterie - Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Marco Rubio, Secretary of State who is also the national security adviser; Pete Hegseth, Defense (or War) Secretary; Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; John Ratcliffe, CIA director; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy. JD Vance was in Azerbaijan so couldn’t attend.

Netanyahu’s predictions about Iran - near-certain victory with Iran’s ballistic missile program “destroyed in a few weeks”,  the regime “so weakened that it could not choke off the Strait of Hormuz”, and “minimal” possibility of Iran attacking U.S. interests in neighboring countries – have all turned out to be laughably and spectacularly wrong. So also has the “Mossad’s intelligence” “that street protests inside Iran would begin again” and the Israeli spy agency would “help foment riots and rebellion”.

The NYT report says that Trump told Netanyahu, “Sounds good to me.” This was also a signal to the sycophants surrounding him.

Trump Over-Rules Scepticism

After the meeting, the US intelligence experts were told to analyse Netanyahu’s presentation. The next day, this analysis was presented to senior US officials. Here is how the NYT report describes the briefing:

“The intelligence officials had deep expertise in U.S. military capabilities, and they knew the Iranian system and its players inside out. They had broken down Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation into four parts. First was decapitation — killing the ayatollah. Second was crippling Iran’s capacity to project power and threaten its neighbors. Third was a popular uprising inside Iran. And fourth was regime change, with a secular leader installed to govern the country.

The U.S. officials assessed that the first two objectives were achievable with American intelligence and military power. They assessed that the third and fourth parts of Mr. Netanyahu’s pitch, which included the possibility of the Kurds mounting a ground invasion of Iran, were detached from reality.”

After Trump joined the meeting, CIA boss Ratcliffe described Netanyahu’s regime change scenarios as “farcical” while Rubio went further to call it “bullshit”. Others too were sceptical.

On being asked for his opinion, General Caine said, “Sir, this is, in my experience, standard operating procedure for the Israelis. They oversell, and their plans are not always well-developed. They know they need us, and that’s why they’re hard-selling.”

The NYT report says that “Mr. Trump appeared to remain very interested in accomplishing Parts 1 and 2: killing the ayatollah and Iran’s top leaders and dismantling the Iranian military”.

Over the next few days hectic deliberations continued. General Caine added another “alarming military assessment”- a war on Iran would “drastically deplete stockpiles of American weaponry, including missile interceptors”. He also “flagged the enormous difficulty of securing the Strait of Hormuz and the risks of Iran blocking it”. But Trump dismissed this saying that the “regime would capitulate before it came to that”. Trump thought the war would end quickly – another assumption that has proved dramatically wrong.

The NYT report finds that Trump was “especially emboldened by the spectacular commando raid to capture the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his compound on January 3, 2026”. He believed in “the unmatched prowess of U.S. forces”. While Hegseth was a big supporter of a war against Iran, others appeared to be not so sure but decided to go along with whatever the President thought.

The only person, according to NYT, who tried to openly discourage the idea of war against Iran was Vice President JD Vance, who “had built his political career opposing precisely the kind of military adventurism that was now under serious consideration. He had described a war with Iran as “a huge distraction of resources” and “massively expensive.” It needs to be mentioned that Vance is no pacifist or dove. He stood for “a limited, punitive strike”. The NYT’s assessment is when he thought that Trump was bent upon a war, Vance “argued that he should do so with overwhelming force, in the hope of achieving his objectives quickly”.

When to Attack?

According to the NYT, in the last week of February, US and Israeli received intelligence that Ayatollah Khamenei “would be meeting above ground with other top officials of the regime, in broad daylight and wide open for an air attack”. This was seen as a “fleeting chance to strike at the heart of Iran’s leadership”. Netanyahu reportedly urged Trump to move fast. Trump had offered negotiations with Iran which “gave the United States extra time to move military assets to the Middle East”. Kushner and Witkoff who were negotiating with Iranian officials in Geneva and Oman gave the assessment that it would take months.

The Final Meeting

On February 26, a war group was assembled in the Situation Room in White House. Apart from those who attended Neyanyahu’s presentation a fortnight ago, there were JD Vance; David Warrington, White House counsel; Steven Cheung, White House communications director; and Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary. The NYT report points out that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who would have to manage the coming oil/gas shock were excluded, as was Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.

The meeting lasted only about 90 minutes. Everybody agreed to go ahead with attacking Iran, despite some misgivings. All would stand by the President.

Here is how the NYT report ends:

“I think we need to do it,” the president told the room. He said they had to make sure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, and they had to ensure that Iran could not just shoot missiles at Israel or throughout the region.

General Caine told Mr. Trump that he had some time; he did not need to give the go-ahead until 4 p.m. the following day.

Aboard Air Force One the next afternoon, 22 minutes before General Caine’s deadline, Mr. Trump sent the following order: “Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck.”

War Goes On

The attack on Iran by the combined forces of US and Israel is now in the sixth week, although currently going through a ceasefire. The allied invasion and attack on Lebanon by Israel continues with unabated ferocity. In Iran, it is estimated that over 1700 civilians have been killed, apart from assassination of many top leaders, including Ayatollah Khamenei and his family members. It is estimated that about one lakh homes have been damaged or destroyed in bombing raids along with some 23,500 commercial units. It is also estimated that 339 medical facilities, 857 schools and 32 universities have been targeted by US strikes causing damage. Some 120 museums and cultural sites have been damaged. The NYT report reveals the callous decision making process and the foolish assumptions that were behind this war against the people of Iran.