Rubio defends Trump’s strikes on Iran and calls the regime “crazy”

“Let me explain this to you guys in plain English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics,” Rubio told reporters.

“They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons,” Rubio said. “This is the weakest they’ve ever been. Now is a good time to go after them.”

Rubio said Trump made the “right decision.” Dismantling Iranian military capabilities Before they can protect the nuclear program.

“The president made a decision to go after them, seize their missiles, seize their Navy, seize their drones… so they can never have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday defended US President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iranian military infrastructure. (Alex Brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

He acknowledged that “there will be a price to pay,” but said it would be much less than allowing Iran to become nuclear-armed.

He added: “This is a much lower price than Iran possessing nuclear weapons.”

Rubio became noticeably more heated when asked whether Israel dictated the timing of the operation.

“Your statement is false,” he told a reporter and suggested that the United States acted because Israel was about to attack.

Rubio stressed on Monday that Israel is ready to act independently.

“We knew there would be Israeli action,” Rubio said. “We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces.” “We knew that if we did not proactively pursue them…we would suffer greater losses.”

He stressed on Tuesday that the decision ultimately rests with the president Donald Trump.

“The president has decided that we are not going to get hit first,” Rubio said. “If you told the president of the United States that if we don’t come first, we’re going to get more people killed and more people injured, the president would be first.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, said after a classified briefing that Israel was “determined to act… with or without American support,” and that American officials had concluded that “A coordinated response was essential“.

“I’m convinced they did the right thing,” Johnson said.

Despite Rubio’s harsh rhetoric toward Iran’s clerical leadership, administration officials stressed that the mission was not aimed at overthrowing the regime but rather at dismantling its military capabilities.

US Central Command released footage showing strikes on Iranian mobile missile launchers. (@CENTCOM via X)

Rubio has repeatedly framed the operation as focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers, drone capabilities, and naval assets.

He said: “Iran cannot possess a nuclear weapon.” “It can’t have the things it was hiding behind to have a nuclear weapons program.”

Sin. Kennedy praises Trump’s resolve on Iran and says the world is safer today because of what he did

To date, US and Israeli strikes have largely targeted missile infrastructure and military installations. Officials did not indicate that nuclear enrichment sites were the primary focus of the campaign.

Some Democrats questioned whether the administration had demonstrated an imminent threat to the United States.

People gather in Revolution Square to mourn the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 in a joint Israeli-American operation, in Tehran, Iran, on March 1, 2026. (Kafeh Kazemi/Getty Images)

“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America from the Iranians. It was a threat to Israel.” Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia.He said after the briefing. “We consider the threat to Israel to be equivalent to the imminent threat to the United States. So we are in uncharted territory.”

“I have no idea what the target was, and I didn’t get any additional clarity,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said after the classified briefing.

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Rubio brushed off the criticism, predicting that opponents would emerge from briefings and claim they “didn’t hear anything” while insisting that… The administration complied with the notification to Congress requirements.

“This is an action by the president to confront a real threat,” Rubio said. “The world will be a safer place when extremist clerics no longer have access to these weapons.”

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