Trump Launches Large Scale War As CBS Exec Throws In The Towel

The President Launched a War Against Iran as CBS News Long-time Producer Heads For The Exits

Well. He did it. In the dead of night, while most Americans were asleep and Congress was certainly not consulted, Donald J. Trump launched what the Pentagon is calling “major combat operations” against Iran. The man who spent years calling the Iraq War a catastrophic blunder, who promised his base no more foreign wars, who sulked for months about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize, woke up one morning and decided the cure for boredom was bombing a nation of 90 million people. Inside the Beltway, they used to say the buck stops at the Oval Office. These days, it apparently stops at Truth Social, at 4:44 in the morning.

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Trump Bombs Iran. The Generals Warned Him. He Didn’t Care.

America’s top military brass were about as subtle as generals ever get in warning Trump off this one. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, reportedly told the president that a full-scale attack on Iran would cost American lives and dangerously deplete already stretched weapons stockpiles. Trump’s response was to go on Truth Social and declare the report “100% incorrect.”

So here we are. “Operation Epic Fury” is underway. That’s the actual name they chose. Epic Fury. For a man who said he ended eight wars and deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump has developed quite the taste for conflict. First came the helicopter raid into Caracas to grab Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a stunt Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon called a “clear military success.” That was the warm-up act.

Iran is a different stage entirely. The last time Washington decided military force could deliver regime change in the Middle East, American troops spent eight years bogged down in Iraq, and the real winner turned out to be Iran. Trump acknowledged in his announcement that American lives “may be lost.” He called it a “noble mission” and told Iranians to seize control of their government once the bombs stopped falling. “This will be, probably, your only chance for generations,” he said. This from a man who, just last month, texted the Norwegian prime minister that since Oslo wouldn’t give him the peace prize, he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace.”

Reagan made his second-term legacy by calling an end to the Cold War alongside Gorbachev. Trump seems to have decided his legacy will be something rather more percussive.

MAGA to Trump: No. Just No.

The revolt from his own base was swift and stunning. Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed misogynist and Trump ally, posted: “NOBODY WANTS THIS WAR.” Milo Yiannopoulos was less restrained: “Oh, how disgusting. F--- you, Mr. President.” Nick Fuentes put it in caps: “NO WAR WITH IRAN. ISRAEL IS DRAGGING US TO WAR. AMERICA FIRST.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene had posted a video just one day before the strike, featuring Trump’s own past words on Iraq: “They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none, and they knew there were none.” After the bombs fell, she added: “This is the Trump I supported. Now for some unknown reason, Trump has joined the neocons. End of MAGA.“

Congressman Thomas Massie called it what it is legally: “Acts of war unauthorized by Congress.” Which they are. The Constitution requires congressional approval. The strike happened while most Americans slept. JD Vance had assured the public only hours before that there was “no chance” the U.S. would end up in a years-long conflict. Hours later, bombs were falling on Iran.

The anti-interventionist wing of the Republican Party has spent years insisting Trump was different from the Bush-era neocons. Last night, they got their answer.

The Peace President Had a 4:44 A.M. Grievance to Share

Here is what Donald Trump chose to do in the hours after launching a war: he posted on Truth Social about Fani Willis.

At 4:44 in the morning, two hours after announcing “major combat operations” against Iran, the 79-year-old president shared an article about how the Biden Justice Department allegedly encouraged the Fulton County district attorney to apply for a grant while she was investigating his attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. The 2020 grievances, apparently, do not sleep. Not even on the night you start a war.

He also posted an article arguing that the war with Iran is justified because the Iranian regime “sought to undermine President Donald Trump’s reelection bid in 2020.” So there it is. The chain of logic for bombing a nation runs, in part, through a Truth Social grudge posted before dawn.

The Fulton County case, for the record, was dropped after Trump won in 2024. Its legal merits were never adjudicated. Fani Willis was disqualified after her relationship with a special prosecutor became public. None of that stopped the president from relitigating it at 4:44 a.m. on the morning he went to war. Ronald Reagan at least had the decency to be coherent about his foreign policy rationale.

CBS News Is Losing Its Soul, One Buyout at a Time

Mary Walsh spent 46 years at CBS News. She covered wars, presidential campaigns, and national tragedies. On Friday, she walked out the door with a farewell memo that should stop anyone who cares about journalism cold. Journalists at CBS News, she wrote, have been told to aim their reporting “at a particular part of the political spectrum.” She added simply: “I don’t know how to do that.”

Walsh is one of nearly a dozen veteran producers to accept buyouts and leave since Bari Weiss took over as CBS News editor-in-chief, a role she was handed as a concession to Trump-aligned regulators who needed to be appeased before the Paramount Skydance acquisition could close. Weiss had no prior television experience. She has since pulled a 60 Minutes segment on conditions in El Salvador’s megaprison, told staff to quit if they didn’t share her vision, and presided over what former producer Alicia Hastey described as a culture in which journalists are forced to “self-censor or avoid challenging narratives.”

And now Paramount Skydance is the frontrunner to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company. The panic inside CNN is, by all accounts, “off the charts.” Anderson Cooper left 60 Minutes under Weiss’s tenure. He is currently a CNN anchor. The prospect of Weiss and Cooper under the same roof is being described by media insiders as “messy and uncomfortable.” That may be the understatement of the year.

This is the American media landscape in the spring of 2026: a billionaire with documented ties to Trump is absorbing the networks that are supposed to hold power accountable, veteran journalists are being walked out the door, and the ones who remain are being told which direction to aim. Meanwhile, the country is at war with Iran, and the president is posting about 2020 at 4:44 in the morning.

Which is exactly why we’re here.

CBS News is losing its veterans. CNN is bracing for a hostile takeover. The mainstream press is already softening its language around a war launched without congressional approval in the middle of the night. Raw Story and Really American built Raw America because someone has to say the plain thing plainly. If you’re reading this and you’re not yet a paid subscriber, now is the moment. Every subscription keeps this newsroom independent, irreverent, and answerable only to you. The oligarchs are buying up the press. We’re asking you to help us stay out of their hands. Become a paid subscriber. This is Raw America. We’re not going anywhere.

As American bombs fall on Iran and the media companies that should be covering it are absorbed by Trump's allies, we'll be here — updating you as this develops. Stay close.