{"id":835617,"date":"2026-03-19T06:07:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/835617\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T06:07:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T06:07:38","slug":"donald-trumps-unhinged-24-hours-as-top-aide-tears-his-excuse-for-the-iran-war-to-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/835617\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump&#8217;s unhinged 24 hours as top aide tears his excuse for the Iran War to pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The day started badly with some pretty disastrous inflation figures. Then Donald Trump&#8217;s Director of National Intelligence tried to rinse his reasoning for launching the war in Iran without anyone noticing&#8230; on live TV.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Donald-Trump-26077661405671.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"A haunted-looking Trump on his way to pay respects to people killed in his war\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">A haunted-looking Trump on his way to pay respects to people killed in his war(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Donald Trump spent most of today away from the cameras &#8211; and if I were him, I&#8217;d have done the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The day started badly with some pretty disastrous inflation figures. Then his Director of National Intelligence tried to rinse his reasoning for launching the war in Iran without anyone noticing&#8230; on live TV. And then his pick to replace Kristi Noem at the Department of Homeland Security got in a slanging match at his confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Still, at least Trump took his hat off to watch the bodies come home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Here&#8217;s what you need to know.<\/p>\n<p>1. Inflation was way worse than expected &#8211; even before the war<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">US inflation figures came out this morning, and they were not what the Trump administration was hoping for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Prices rose by 0.7% from January to February, which is about 0.5 points higher than expected. The year-on-year increase of 3.4% was the highest since February 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">To put that into perspective, have a look at the faces of these two Fox Business News anchors as they try to cope with the news&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The news sent the stock markets tumbling &#8211; not just because they were higher than expected, but because they were going up before Trump started dropping bombs on Iran and spiking oil prices. Not good news for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>2. Trump&#8217;s anti-War National Intelligence chief tries her best not to throw him under the bus, but kinda does anyway<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Tulsi Gabbard, Trump&#8217;s National Intelligence Director &#8211; who was so opposed to the idea of war in Iran that she sold tee shirts on her website that said &#8220;NO WAR IN IRAN&#8221; on them in 2020 &#8211; did her best not to throw her boss under the bus. But she kinda did anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">There was a little confusion when she appeared before Congress today. See, in her written statement to the committee, she said last year&#8217;s strikes on Iran had indeed obliterated their imminent ability to make nuclear weapons. &#8220;There have been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,&#8221; she wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">But when it came time to read out her submission, she just&#8230;skipped that bit. Presumably thinking that if she didn&#8217;t read out the part where she completely contradicted the one thing Trump was leaning on to justify his war of choice, then she wouldn&#8217;t get in trouble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Unfortunately for her, people noticed. &#8220;You chose to omit the parts that contradict Trump,&#8221; Democrat Senator Mark Warner noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">She proceeded to dance around questions from fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff about whether there was an imminent threat of a nuclear attack from Iran. She told Sen. Ossoff that it wasn\u2019t the intelligence community\u2019s job to determine what is an imminent threat against the US and put that responsibility on Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cThe only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Ossoff accused her of avoiding a direct answer \u201cbecause to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content cannot be displayed without consent3. Trump&#8217;s new ICE boss says he shouldn&#8217;t have called protester killed by ICE &#8216;deranged&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Markwayne Mullin, Trump&#8217;s pick to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security, admitted calling Alex Pretti, a protester killed by ICE agents in Minnesota &#8220;deranged&#8221; was probably not a good thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Retracting the comments at a confirmation hearing before the Senate, he said: &#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t have said that and as secretary, I wouldn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The first part of the hearing was marked by a fiery opening statement by Republican committee chair Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Paul challenged Mullin&#8217;s fitness for the role, pointing to comments Mullin made after a funding fight, when he called Paul a \u201cfreaking snake\u201d and said he understood why a neighbor had tackled Paul in a lawn care dispute. That incident happened several years ago, and Paul suffered multiple broken ribs and later underwent surgeries he linked to the attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cI just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force?\u201d Paul said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Mullin refused to back down to Paul, in a display that Trump is likely to expect and appreciate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cFor you to say I\u2019m a liar, sir, that\u2019s not accurate,\u201d Mullin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Paul later said he would not vote for Mullin&#8217;s confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>4. Trump takes off his hat for fallen soldiers, this time<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Trump-Iran-US-Military-Deaths-26077666570817.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Trump and &quot;Secretary of War&quot; Pete Hegseth attended the ceremony\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Trump and &#8220;Secretary of War&#8221; Pete Hegseth attended the ceremony(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Donald Trump flew to Dover, Delaware today to pay respects as the remains of six US service members were returned to their families. The six crew members were killed when their KC-135 aircraft went down over friendly territory in western Iraq while supporting operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Trump faced heavy criticism at a similar ceremony last week, after he wore a white &#8216;USA&#8217; baseball cap as the coffins were carried off the plane. Later, his Political Action Committee used a photo of him at the ceremony at the top of a fundraising email.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh  undefined\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Trump didn&#8217;t stop to answer questions from the media upon returning to the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day started badly with some pretty disastrous inflation figures. Then Donald Trump&#8217;s Director of National Intelligence tried&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,32,393,1630,4884,77024,476,774,185741,12,1144,2662,285,37122,712,24155,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-835617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-britain","tag-donald-trump","tag-england","tag-fitness","tag-great-britain","tag-homeland-security","tag-inflation","tag-iran","tag-mark-warner","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-oil-prices","tag-politics","tag-public-services","tag-scotland","tag-soldiers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116254346336660264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}