Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday gave a new explanation from the Trump administration about why the U.S. decided to launch military action against Iran now — saying the threat from Iran was “imminent” because it knew it would retaliate against the U.S. if attacked, including by Israel.
He spoke to reporters before briefing the Gang of 8 congressional leaders on Capitol Hill.
“There absolutely was an imminent threat,” Rubio said. “And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit, sit there and absorb a blow before we respond.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media on the day of a briefing for Congressional leaders on the situation in Iran, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 2, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Shortly after the briefing, House Speaker Mike Johnson backed Rubio’s new rationale, saying the consequences would have been staggering if the U.S. didn’t attack at the same time as Israel.
Rubio said the U.S. knew how Iran would respond.
“It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone — the United States or Israel or anyone — they were going to respond, and respond against the United States. The orders had been delegated down to the field commanders,” he said. “It was automatic.”
He said the near-immediate retaliation from Iran had proved his point, saying missiles had been “prepositioned” to strike before the initial attack on the leadership compound.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media on the day of a briefing for Congressional leaders on the situation in Iran, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 2, 2026.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
“If we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties,” Rubio went on. “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
But Rubio denied that Israel had forced the Trump administration’s hand — saying U.S. military action would have eventually been necessary anyway.
“No matter what, ultimately, this operation needed to happen. That’s the question of why now,” he said, referring to the impending Israeli strike. “But this operation needed to happen.”
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