U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Former national security staffer to President Obama and member of the "Pod Save America" hosts, Tommy Vietor, thinks that a recent memo sent out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio is foreshadowing justification for more Iran attacks. He wasn't alone, with one ex-CIA official also weighing in on the ominous leak.
A report revealed that Trump is already preparing for post-election strikes on Iran, according to Zeteo's Asawin Suebsaeng, who wrote Friday.
Suebsaeng said officials are telling him preparations have ramped up significantly, and they're now working on a target list that will include civilian infrastructure.
But it seems Rubio may be trying to give the president cover as anger grows over the war Trump promised would never happen on his watch.
Axios reported late Friday night that American officials abroad should beware because Iran is trying to find ways to kill them, even if they're not near Iran.
The unclassified memo claims that U.S. intelligence discovered Iran has "substantially increased" efforts to target American diplomats and officials in the Middle East and beyond.
"The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against U.S. citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," Rubio said.
Vietor wasn't buying it.
"Zero reason to write this unclassified memo except to then leak it. Sure seems like a pretext for whatever the next phase of US military action will be," he wrote on X Friday evening.
"Stay frosty. War not over," said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA intelligence officer who oversaw clandestine operations in Europe and Eurasia.
He later added, "I have no doubt that this is substantively correct. Iranian terrorist planning is on the rise. Our law enforcement and intelligence community must be on point – in concert with foreign partners. It was curious, however, that this unclassified memo essentially was released to the public. And from SecState to the DNI? (Shouldn’t it be other way around?)"
He noted that he's not certain he's ever seen anything like that in overall threat reporting.
"Was this in relation to embassy departures in the region? If so, that’s rather dramatic," wrote Polymeropoulos. "Threat must be severe-akin to AQAP plots against multiple embassies a decade ago that caused embassy ops closing - but no one leaving (an event in which I helped lead the USG response)."
The final possibility, he said, is more in the vein of Vietor's assessment.
"Or, was this unclassified memo designed to increase support for future kinetic activity against Iran? That’s a curious move, since the war has mobilized Iranian terrorist planning. Defer to other of my former colleagues if they’ve seen such a memo from State to the IC, and it’s public release (it was unclassified, clearly designed for this to be leaked immediately)," Polymeropoulos wrote.
One person alleged that it could even be a "false flag" operation in the making.
Arta Moeini, managing director of the Institute of Peace and Diplomacy, commented, "Interesting how we didn't see memos like this with former DNI @TulsiGabbard at the helm. Now we have a real-estate donor who is willing to weave 'unclassified' narratives for the admin."
Senior National Security reporter for CNN, Zachary Cohen, had the same observation. He wrote that they were able to confirm the legitimacy of the memo, but they, too, had questions.
"Some question as to why this would be communicated from DNI to SecState via this kind of memo, if not solely with intention of public release," he wrote on X.