MAGA star Steve Bannon plays outsized role in Trump's Iran decision: SourcesTrump’s debate on Iran exposed a rift within the GOP.
By Anne Flaherty, Jonathan Karl, Shannon K. Kingston, and Luis Martinez
June 21, 2025, 10:02 AM
Trump had just emerged from a meeting with advisers in the Oval Office, where sources say he was warned: A U.S. attack on a key Iranian nuclear facility could be risky, even with a massive "bunker-buster" bomb believed to be able to penetrate some 200 feet through hardened earth.
The bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, had only been tested, but never used in a real-life tactical situation, experts say. And the exact nature of the concrete and metal protecting the Iranian nuclear site known as Fordo isn’t known, introducing the chance that a US strike would poke a hornet's nest without destroying it.
Bannon, who had already spoken with the president by phone ahead of their lunch, thought all of it was a bad idea, according to several people close to him.
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Bannon’s extraordinary access to Trump this week to discuss a major foreign policy decision like Iran is notable considering Bannon holds no official role in the military or at the State Department. Bannon declined to comment on his lunch with Trump, saying only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to finish what they started.”
“Bannon in a lot of ways has been – day in and day out – delivering a very, very tough and clear message” against military action, said Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative, who also opposes military action in Iran.
That strategy, Mills said, has been key to countering other Trump loyalists who favor teaming up with Israel for a strike.
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According to one U.S. official, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mostly ceded the discussion to military commanders, including Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of military forces in the Mideast, and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who have spent considerable time talking with Trump by phone and in person in recent weeks about his options with Iran and the risks involved, which can be extraordinarily complicated.
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Officials caution that any success Bannon might have in pulling the president back from the brink of war could be brief. When asked on Friday by reporters if he would ask Israel to stop bombing Iran to enable diplomatic negotiations, Trump said probably not.
“If someone is winning, it's a little bit harder to do than if someone is losing,” Trump said of the Israelis.
abcnews.go.com
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