\u201cThey better get serious soon, before it is too late,\u201d the president wrote<\/a> on social media, \u201cbecause once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won\u2019t be pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey are begging to make a deal, not me,\u201d Trump reiterated later Thursday, while hosting his first Cabinet meeting since the war began. \u201cAnybody that sees what is happening understands why they are begging to make a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump asserted that Iran\u2019s military capabilities have been destroyed, and that the American mission is \u201cahead of schedule.\u201d He said American forces were operating without opposition over Iran, and \u201cthere\u2019s not a damn thing they can do about it\u201d because they\u2019ve been \u201cbeat to s\u2014.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s outward confidence<\/a>, a defining feature of the war campaign that has been consistently echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other administration loyalists, continued despite growing concerns this week in Congress \u2014 and not only from Democrats.<\/p>\n Several Republicans emerged from a classified war briefing Wednesday clearly frustrated<\/a> with the administration for not providing a clearer picture of the path out of the now monthlong war, or clear answers on whether it planned to deploy ground troops.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to know more about what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. \u201cWe\u2019re just not getting enough answers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can see why he might have said that,\u201d said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n Democrats have hammered the president \u2014 contrasting the war and its massive budget with rising fuel costs for average Americans and lamenting the deaths of U.S. service members.<\/p>\n \u201cThirteen American lives lost and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent in just three weeks since Donald Trump plunged us into war without congressional authorization. There is still no plan, no clear justification, and no end in sight,\u201d Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said<\/a>. \u201cAmericans called for lower prices, not endless wars.\u201d<\/p>\n For weeks, Trump, Hegseth and other war leaders such as Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have focused on U.S. wins in the conflict \u2014 tallying up Iran\u2019s sunken ships and grounded planes, assassinated leaders and undermined missile capabilities. <\/p>\n In recent days, Trump has suggested that, because of those wins, Iran is buckling. He has said the U.S. is pushing a 15-point plan that will forever block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon or threatening the U.S. or its allies. And he and others in his administration have accused the media of ignoring battlefield wins to harp on losses instead.<\/p>\n Israel, America\u2019s major partner in the conflict, has projected similar confidence while showing no signs of slowing its attacks on Iran. On Thursday it announced it had killed several senior Iranian naval commanders, including Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 navy.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Defense Minister Israel Katz said the deaths should send a \u201cclear message\u201d that Israel will continue to hunt down top Iranian military officials. Iran did not immediately acknowledge Tangsiri\u2019s death.<\/p>\n The head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, praised Tangsiri\u2019s killing, said U.S. strikes would continue, and called on Iranian fighters to \u201cimmediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.\u201d<\/p>\n
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