The president went from declaring the U.S. was attacking Iran in a social media post to immediately posting about attempted Iranian election interference, as his administration is facing accusations of launching an indefensible war.
“Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States,” 79-year-old President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, sharing an article early Saturday by right-leaning digital news organization JustTheNews.
The president rushed to throw out allegations against Iran while launching the major military operation, as his own intelligence agencies indicate his Iran nuclear threat claims are exaggerated.
Trump’s Iranian election interference posts on social media during his unauthorized strikes, which the administration referred to as a “war,” were just one of his many posts during a 4:44 a.m. Truth Social spree. Other Trump posts included another JustTheNews article about Joe Biden and the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Iran has a long history of attempted election interference, and charges were brought against Iranians for efforts in both 2020 and 2024.
In September 2024, the Justice Department charged three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with hacking Trump’s reelection campaign. Attorney General Merrick Garland even warned Iran’s cyber activities had grown increasingly aggressive ahead of the election.
Two Iranians hackers in 2021 were criminally charged for launching a disinformation campaign in the 2020 presidential election.
Top intelligence officials in the first Trump administration at the time accused both Russia and Iran of attempting to interfere in that election.
But the lengthy article shared by Trump early Saturday gets into a series of previously reported accusations against Iran, which has been viewed as a U.S. adversary with simmering hostilities for decades.
The Just the News article author, Jerry Dunleavy, posted “Iran used a Proud Boys hoax & other influence efforts to stop Trump’s re-elect in 2020. Iran then used hack-&-leak ops & more — along with assassination attempts — to try to stop him in 2024. What’s happening now is what they were trying to stave off."
It is not surprising that the president chose to share a lead about election interference right after announcing a war with Iran. He has obsessed for years about losing the 2020 election and has escalated his accusations of election rigging without evidence ahead of the 2026 midterms.
In his own video announcement of the strikes on Iran, Trump specifically called it war and that Americans could be killed in the administration’s so-called “Operation Epic Fury.”
Numerous experts and Democratic lawmakers have already sounded the alarm that the president has exceeded his legal authority with no clear objectives or outcome.
“Everything I have heard from the Administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,” Rep. Jim Himes told Punchbowl News. Himes is the Democrats’ top lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee.
“...Military action in this region almost never ends well for the United States, and conflict with Iran can easily spiral and escalate in ways we cannot anticipate,” Himes said.
