The “Deep State” Is Real

I suspect we could one day look back on why this story kept leaking out of the Pentagon. pic.twitter.com/jpMIDae8QO

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) March 2, 2026

Gen. Caine said Trump gave the final go order for the Iran operation at 3:38 pm EST on Friday, which, according to the WH pool, was when he was on Air Force One traveling to Texas with senators and actor Dennis Quaid on board

— Farnoush Amiri (@FarnoushAmiri) March 2, 2026

"One day after launching strikes on Iran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump told me this morning that the country’s new leadership wants to talk with him and that he plans to do so.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so…

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 1, 2026

These strikes actually were “preemptive” in so far as they preempted Congress being able to vote on the Khanna-Massie War Powers Resolution

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) February 28, 2026

And is anybody old enough to remember this?

Trump posts on Truth Social the headline and link to a Just the News story:

“Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States”

— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 28, 2026

I don't think that came up as a reason in the DOD press conference.

https://t.co/pAohsz8uki pic.twitter.com/dsomeYVwHZ

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) March 2, 2026

Gotta break those eggs.

Important context for Trump’s opposition to regime change wars or interventions is that he never actually opposed them at the time and only did so after they went bad.

— Andrew Kaczynski (@KFILE) March 2, 2026

🤔

The Deep State is also broken:

Maj. Gen. Randy Manner (Ret.), who is currently stranded in the UAE: "One of the small things that does matter to tens of thousands of people here as well as their families -- it's a little bit disheartening to hear that the UK govt is arranging transport for the British… pic.twitter.com/8iqCLZXpZ6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2026

Maj. Gen. Randy Manner (Ret.), who is currently stranded in the UAE: "One of the small things that does matter to tens of thousands of people here as well as their families -- it's a little bit disheartening to hear that the UK govt is arranging transport for the British citizens, whereas here as Americans we feel abandoned. The State Dept is in survival mode because as we know the administration reduced their budget by almost half."

Meanwhile:

3rd and 4th points are a bit vague, would almost certainly require a fundamentally new government in Iran.

Full section: pic.twitter.com/4SJ3suZXO8

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 2, 2026

Points 3 and 4 will indeed take longer than 5 weeks. Which makes this even more relevant.

I jump in the time machine six months from now and imagine the story and headlines about Operation Epic Fury: https://t.co/U6jRHJWb2j pic.twitter.com/eysIbNqKSE

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 2, 2026