Revealed: Here’s Why Trump Chose War

The Trump-Epstein files got too close to being exposed.

Good morning, Raw America family. I had to get you the news of dead servicemembers this morning, so I’m late with my Sunday coffee. But I’m here, and I’m livid.

Early yesterday while America slept, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. had entered war against Iran. The Pentagon called it Operation Epic Fury. Israel called it Lion’s Roar. The rest of us should call it what it is: an illegal war launched by a president who wanted the world to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein.

But first, I want to thank you for your subscription. Your support just allowed us to hire a Capitol Hill reporter, who will now be in Congress next week covering an illegal war.

Now, let me walk you through the week.

On Monday, NPR published an investigation revealing that Trump’s own Justice Department removed Epstein files that contain allegations of sexual abuse against the president. NPR found that at least 50 pages of FBI interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old were missing. The FBI interviewed this accuser four times. Cross-referencing serial numbers stamped on the documents, NPR proved that dozens of pages had simply been disappeared.

Then something remarkable happened: Republican James Comer agreed to investigate too. For the first time, both parties were demanding answers about why Trump’s DOJ was hiding Trump’s name from the Epstein files.

By midweek, the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had opened an internal review into whether it had wrongly withheld the files. The walls were closing in.

Hillary Clinton then sat for a closed-door deposition. She accused the committee of using her to distract from Trump’s own Epstein ties. The New York Times identified more than 38,000 references to Trump, his wife, Mar-a-Lago, and related terms across the DOJ’s Epstein files.

On Thursday, Oman’s foreign minister announced that the U.S. and Iran had made “significant progress” in nuclear negotiations. A deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, was “within reach.”

Hours later, Trump told reporters he was “not happy” with the Iran talks but signaled he’d give diplomats more time.

Twelve hours later, he chose war.

The strikes began in the early hours of Saturday, Iran time — the first day of the work and school week. Millions of Iranians were commuting to offices and dropping children at school when the bombs started falling. There was no warning.

Trump, in his video statement, called on the Iranian people to shelter in place during the bombing.

This wasn’t good advice.

Trump’s Epstein Casualties are Real Girls

One of the first confirmed civilian casualties was a girls’ elementary school in Minab, a city in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province near the Strait of Hormuz. The school week begins on Saturday in Iran. The building was full of children.

Iran’s state media initially reported 40 students killed. Then 53. By Saturday evening, the Judiciary of Minab said the death toll had risen to 85 children killed and 63 wounded, with rescue workers still clearing wreckage. This morning, the toll passed 100.

Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi shared images of the aftermath. “The destroyed building is a primary school for girls in the south of Iran,” he wrote. “It was bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils. Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone.”

Congress did not authorize any of this. Both chambers were preparing votes on war powers resolutions this week to restrict exactly the kind of strike Trump just launched. Congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican, immediately called the strikes “acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”

We are now in a regional war that nobody voted for, launched by a president whose Justice Department was caught hiding his name from the Epstein files four days ago.

I’ve Seen This Movie Before

I need to be personal with you for a moment.

I founded Raw Story in 2004, in the teeth of the Iraq War. I watched in real time as a president lied his way into a war of choice, and I watched a compliant media help him do it. I spent years covering that disaster — the false intelligence, the missing WMDs, the civilian toll that the networks didn’t want to show, the reporters who were too embedded with power to tell the truth. I built my career on the conviction that an independent press is the only thing standing between a government that wants war and a public that deserves the truth.

I’m telling you: this is that moment again. That’s why I’m building Raw America, with you.

A regime with secrets to hide goes to war. And the media they’ve captured covers for them. That’s the playbook. It worked in 2003. They’re betting it will work in 2026.

The Media Takeover They Wanted You To Miss

The corporate media consolidation we’ve been tracking isn’t just a business story. It’s a war story.

This week, Netflix walked away from its bid for Warner Brothers, leaving Paramount as the likely buyer of CNN and HBO. Paramount is run by David Ellison, son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison. If this deal closes, one family will control CBS News and CNN. Fox News already dominates cable. Add a Trump-friendly CNN, and conservative-aligned ownership will control approximately 78 percent of all cable news viewership in America.

Now ask yourself: who is going to ask tough questions about this war?

David Ellison hand-picked Bari Weiss to run CBS News. Five months in, she’s turned it into a rubber stamp.

She tried to kill a 60 Minutes investigation documenting torture of Trump-ordered deportees.

She canceled Stephen Colbert, the number-one late-night show for nine consecutive seasons, three days after he criticized Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump.

And she can’t stop hiring Jeffrey Epstein’s friends — Peter Attia, whose name appeared over 1,700 times in the Epstein files, resigned this week after Weiss refused to fire him. Weiss’ own wife visited Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse in 2018, a decade after his conviction.

Weiss’ takeover is flailing. CBS posted its weakest primetime month in 26 years. The CBS Evening News has lost over a million viewers since her tenure began. Anderson Cooper quit rather than compromise his journalism.

They bought a network. They installed their person. And now that person is going to tell you how to feel about a war launched to bury her boss’s scandals. That’s the plan.

It’s not going to work — not if we have anything to say about it.

Thank You For Supporting Raw America

I built Raw Story in part because the media failed the country on Iraq. I’m building Raw America now because they’re failing the country again. And this time, they’re crushing voices that might dissent.

The Washington Post answers to Jeff Bezos. The LA Times answers to a MAGA mogul. CBS killed an interview with a Democratic candidate because it’s terrified of Trump’s FCC. CNN is about to be handed to one of Trump’s biggest donors.

Raw America answers only to you.

That’s not a slogan. That’s our business model. We don’t take corporate money. We don’t answer to billionaires. Every reporter we hire, every story we break, every Sunday newsletter like this one — it’s funded by readers who decided that independent journalism is worth paying for.

Please share this with someone who needs to see the full picture. The Trump-Epstein files are real, and they’re not going to go away just because someone in War-a-Lago sucked America into another war.

They’re spending billions to control the old media while dropping bombs to control the narrative. We’re building something they can’t buy. Together.

Thank you for joining me. I sincerely appreciate your support.

— John Byrne,

Founder, Raw America and Raw Story