Trump Iran War Decision Reportedly Influenced by Netanyahu, Murdoch and Conservative Allies Outside Government

The United States' entry into war with Iran on 28 February 2026 was shaped in part, by a private campaign led by figures outside the American government, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, even as some of Donald Trump's most senior advisers kept their reservations to themselves.

That is the picture drawn by a Bloomberg report published on 21 March 2026, citing multiple people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The report describes a president who received little direct internal pushback before authorising strikes, and who instead found his most enthusiastic encouragement from a foreign head of government and a billionaire media proprietor.

The State Department has pushed back on the characterisation, but the account has since been corroborated by a string of resignations and public statements from inside the administration.

The Private Lobbying Campaign Behind a Public War

According to Bloomberg, Netanyahu communicated directly with Trump in the period leading up to the strikes, pressing the case for military action against Tehran. Murdoch, the 95-year-old chairman emeritus of News Corp, allegedly made multiple calls to the president urging him to confront Iran. One person briefed on those interactions told Bloomberg that Murdoch 'communicated with Trump several times as he urged the president to take on Tehran.' Representatives for Murdoch did not respond to requests for comment.

The New York Post, one of the cornerstone titles of Murdoch's media empire, adopted an unequivocal editorial posture once the war began. After news broke on 1 March 2026 that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had been killed, the Post's front page read 'DEATH TO THE DEVIL.'

Subsequent editions carried headlines such as 'DON GETS LAST LAUGH' and 'NO MERCY,' mirroring the framing used by Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. That editorial alignment did not emerge from nowhere. As far back as June 2025, Responsible Statecraft reported that sources close to Trump said 'Levin and Murdoch are all over Trump all the time,' describing sustained lobbying against diplomatic negotiations with Iran by conservative media figures.

Netanyahu's role in shaping the US decision is less disputed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated in the opening days of the conflict that the United States knew an Israeli action was imminent and chose to act pre-emptively rather than absorb retaliatory strikes.

Senator Lindsey Graham, according to Foreign Policy, reportedly coached Netanyahu on how to make the case to Trump. Netanyahu himself had spent decades warning of Iranian nuclear capability, including a 2012 address to the UN General Assembly in which he said Iran was 'maybe a few weeks' from a nuclear weapon.

A Cabinet That Stayed Quiet While Outsiders Pushed for War

The Bloomberg account is notable as much for what Trump's inner circle did not do as for what outside actors allegedly did. According to the sources cited in the report, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles were each more cautious about the prospect of armed conflict, but 'few, if any, told him directly it was an ill-conceived idea.'

Wiles reportedly worked to ensure Trump understood the full scope of his options. Vance urged senior officials to speak candidly with the president, and separately questioned how 'any' war with Iran would work.

A senior Trump adviser, speaking to Axios on 18 March 2026, acknowledged the political sensitivity of the situation. 'We are cognizant of the appearance of doing Israel's bidding. We're not. But we understand the perception and it's not helpful,' the official said.

Multiple US officials described Trump as 'the most bullish person in the White House' on going to war with Iran. Three of his advisers told Axios separately that they believed Trump would want to end major operations before Netanyahu, reflecting the diverging military objectives that have since come into plain view.

The State Department rejected the Bloomberg account. Spokesperson Tommy Piggot told Bloomberg it was 'an old familiar story of people not knowing what they are talking about, pretending that they do. There is no division. President Trump is making the world safer, and the entire administration is lockstep in that effort.'

That denial arrived alongside the formal launch of the conflict's fourth week, and a conflict that has already killed at least 13 US soldiers and driven oil prices above £75 ($100) per barrel after Trump announced the US had 'totally demolished' most of Kharg Island, Iran's primary oil export hub.

The Resignation That Cracked the Administration's Façade

On 17 March 2026, eleven days before Bloomberg's report, the pressure already had a name and a face. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre and a former Army Special Forces officer with 11 combat deployments, published his resignation letter on X.

In the letter, addressed directly to Trump and published in full by Axios, Kent wrote: 'I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.'

He went further, alleging that 'high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign' to push Trump toward war. Kent's claims about Israel drew immediate and fierce condemnation. PBS reporting noted that Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, who said Kent 'never should have been confirmed,' nonetheless conceded that 'there was no credible evidence of an imminent threat from Iran.' The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the suggestion that Israel drove the decision 'insulting and laughable.'

The war that Netanyahu dreamed of for decades and that Murdoch allegedly urged Trump to start is now in its fourth week, and the men who pushed hardest for it show no sign of agreeing on what victory looks like.