The Trump administration opened a fresh round of limited strikes aimed at Iranian targets, timed to the eve of the current midterm elections. The action coincides with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressing the White House to consider a nuclear strike on Iran, fueling debates about how far such an escalation might extend.
The news comes days after Democratic Senator Chris Murphy described the administration’s military plans as “insane” and warned of grave consequences. Two days later, Murphy experienced a stroke and was hospitalized.
Now, with reports that Netanyahu is nudging Trump toward a tougher military push and Carlson warning of a possible nuclear move, the issue shifts from whether Washington will carry out further assaults on Iran to how far the president could be prepared to push the conflict.
According to The Associated Press, American forces struck Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, just hours before voters headed to the polls.
A U.S. official said the limited operation targeted Iranian units using surface-to-air missiles against American personnel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authorization to comment publicly. The strikes came after weeks of speculation about whether Trump would renew a broader military campaign following Election Day.
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The timing is notable because Netanyahu allegedly pressed Trump for renewed strikes during a weekend telephone call, regional officials and another familiar source told the AP.
Trump acknowledged the call with Netanyahu, calling the exchange “very good” but offering few specifics.
That confirmed contact has given renewed significance to Carlson’s Sunday night assertions, in which he claimed Netanyahu was pushing Trump toward a much more consequential military decision.
In a lengthy post on X, Carlson asserted that Netanyahu wanted the United States to employ a nuclear weapon against Pickaxe Mountain, an underground Iranian facility said to lie beneath hundreds of feet of rock.
“Bibi calls Trump about it every day,” Carlson wrote, citing an unnamed observer.
Carlson asserted that conventional American weapons could not penetrate the mountain’s granite defenses, and he claimed Netanyahu was advocating a nuclear strike as the sole way to destroy infrastructure believed to be involved in uranium enrichment.
He further claimed that Trump might decide by November 7, while Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff were pressing for a diplomatic settlement.
Those allegations have not been independently verified. The White House has dismissed Carlson’s account, and there is no public evidence indicating that Trump is considering using a nuclear weapon.
Yet the underlying military challenge Carlson described is not entirely imaginary.
A Newsweek analysis examined how difficult it would be to destroy Pickaxe Mountain’s deeply buried infrastructure, suggesting that conventional weapons might be insufficient to completely eliminate the facility.
That does not prove that nuclear arms are necessary, nor that the administration intends to deploy them. Destroying a facility outright and rendering it temporarily inoperable are distinct military objectives.
Trump himself broached Pickaxe Mountain during a Monday appearance on Fox News, hinting that the United States could deal with the site swiftly.
Those comments came as diplomatic talks continued, with U.S. and regional officials working toward an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and prevent a slide back into large-scale hostilities.
For Murphy, the risk of escalation was evident even before the most recent developments.
Speaking Thursday about a classified Pentagon briefing, the Connecticut Democrat warned that the administration was weighing a brief military operation with potentially catastrophic consequences.
“You’ve heard a preview that it would be a short-duration plan. I will simply say this: Their plan is insane,” Murphy stated.
Two days later, Murphy, then 53, felt numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed a stroke.
Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, reported on Sunday that Murphy was awake, alert, and responding well to treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She noted doctors’ optimism about his full recovery.
The timing of Murphy’s warning and his subsequent hospitalization fueled online speculation. However, there remains no evidence linking his stroke to his criticisms of Trump or to the administration’s Iran policy.
