Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee that there are "concrete military plans to take over Greenland and Panama."
Early Friday morning, Israel launched a massive strike on Tehran - aimed specifically at Iran's nuclear program, with deadly precision. Two senior military officers were killed. Iran responded just hours later with more than 100 drones launched at Israeli territory. The Middle East stands on the edge of a conflagration. And President Donald Trump? He now faces exactly the kind of reality he tried to avoid during his campaign - a foreign war he cannot control, but also cannot ignore.
Israel informed the Trump administration in advance about the planned strikes on Iran and warned of heavy retaliation. The United States responded by evacuating embassy personnel and authorizing the departure of military family members. Special envoy Steve Witkoff still plans to travel to Oman this weekend for talks on Iran's nuclear program, but it remains unclear whether Iran will participate. The Israeli strike on Iran has become the first major foreign policy stress test for Trump’s administration since taking office in January - and it comes at a time of growing domestic unrest: nationwide protests are scheduled for Saturday in hundreds of cities, coinciding with a massive military parade in Washington to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Trump’s 79th birthday falls on the same day. Instead of patriotic celebration, the country now faces the prospect of images of a deeply divided nation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security adviser, tried to create distance on Friday morning - stating that the U.S. was not involved in the Israeli operation. The administration’s top priority, he said, was to protect U.S. forces in the region. Washington had already begun pulling out diplomats and military dependents prior to the attack - reportedly after being privately warned by Israel about its plans and the expected Iranian response.
Trump himself commented on social media early Friday: "I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal." Later that morning, in an interview with ABC News, he doubled down. The attack was “excellent,” Trump said - and he openly signaled more to come. "They got hit hard. Very hard. As hard as you can get hit. And there’s more coming. A lot more." While Israel was already repositioning air force bases, the Pentagon announced a set of contingency plans on the same day - though in a very different context: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee that there are "concrete military plans to take over Greenland and Panama." The statement, difficult to fathom and met with astonishment by the committee, fits into a broader pattern of military self-assertion in Trump’s second term.
Meanwhile, the domestic situation continues to escalate. Just yesterday, a federal judge ordered that Trump must return control of the National Guard in California to Governor Gavin Newsom - a response to the controversial troop deployment during protests in Los Angeles against ICE raids. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals swiftly blocked that order. A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Until then, the troops remain in the city - visible, armed, symbolic.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff is still expected to travel to Oman - where talks on Iran’s nuclear program were originally set to take place. But after the latest strikes, it remains uncertain whether Iranian representatives will attend at all. One of Trump’s core promises was to pull America out of its “forever wars.” Now he stands at the edge of a new one - one that cannot be contained through diplomacy or media spin. The president who styled himself as a deal-maker has cleared the table - and the game starts over. Only this time, with real front lines.
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