President Donald Trump is teasing his response to the Israel-Iran conflict, recently promising that he will make an official decision "within two weeks." Journalists who have heard that phrase from the president in the past aren't so sure he'll follow through.
That includes one reporter who asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during her Thursday briefing if Trump was actually going to make a decision on how to proceed. The reporter reminded Leavitt of prior instances in which Trump failed to make good on two-week deadlines.
"President Trump has said previously in regard to Russia, he's used the phrase 'two weeks' several times, in terms of like, 'we expect a two-week deadline,' then we get another two-week deadline," the reporter said. "How can be sure that he's going to stick to this one on making a decision on Iran?"
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"Well in those deadlines, as you've seen in respect to Russia-Ukraine — might I add, these are two very different complicated global conflicts as you know, that the president in inherited from our previous incompetent president," Leavitt said, heaping blame on former President Joe Biden for the escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Other observers on social media also expressed skepticism that Trump would actually be ready to announce an official policy on Iran two weeks from now. CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner tweeted that he was "still waiting for the healthcare plan," in reference to Trump promising a comprehensive healthcare reform plan in 2020 that he said was coming in two weeks (he never announced it). The Kaiser Family Foundation also compiled a timeline of all the instances in which Trump teased a soon-to-be-released healthcare proposal that never materialized, dating all the way back to his 2016 candidacy.
"The health care plan! It's coming," Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty tweeted. Washington Post tech reporter simply tweeted the text "Elon fans" with an image of the HBO show "Westworld" in which James Marsden's character is standing at a gallows with a noose around his neck saying, "first time?"
"He is lowkey relatable with his fake deadlines," one X user observed.
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