MAGA's ascendant "America First" wing erupted after Secretary of State Marco Rubio effectively blamed Israel for drawing the U.S. into war with Iran, Axios' Marc Caputo, Barak Ravid, Alex Isenstadt and Zachary Basu write.

• Why it matters: Rubio's remarks were the first time a Trump official had so explicitly acknowledged Israel as a driving force behind the war — landing at a moment when Americans' public support for Israel has hit historic lows.

"We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action" against Iran, Rubio told reporters on Capitol Hill yesterday. "We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces" by the Iranian regime.

• "And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties … And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't act," Rubio continued.
• Rubio added later: "Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it. But this had to happen no matter what."

The widely repeated translation: The U.S. couldn't stop its ally — a far smaller nation that America arms, funds and protects — from attacking Iran on Saturday. So the U.S. had to strike Iran, too.

• Not quite, U.S. officials said later. Regardless of Israel, they said, Trump ordered the strikes because he felt Iran was negotiating a nuclear deal in bad faith, and the U.S. needed to destroy the country's offensive military infrastructure.
• "This operation needed to happen," Rubio told reporters, because Iran was developing too many missiles too quickly and was rebuilding its nuclear capabilities.

🖼️ The big picture: Rubio's remarks were widely interpreted as making the U.S. look subordinate to Israel's interests. And they inflamed already angry MAGA elites who had spent the day railing against President Trump's decision to go to war.

🎙️ On their podcasts and social media, frustrated pro-Trump influencers argued the president had become beholden to the military hawks and neocons he explicitly ran against.

• Anti-Israel voices on the right — as well as openly antisemitic influencers who've clawed toward the mainstream in recent years — claimed vindication.

🔎 Between the lines: Even some traditional Trump allies think the White House's messaging has been muddled. The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh wrote on X as MAGA fractured over Rubio's remarks: "So he's flat out telling us that we're in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said."

• But Philip Klein, editor of National Review Online, wrote that those who think Rubio "said that Netanyahu forced the U.S. into war … are conflating the question 'Why?' with the question of 'Why now?'"

💡 Reality check: The picture critics are painting — of a U.S. reluctantly pulled into war by a smaller ally — obscures deep coordination between the two countries in the weeks before the strike.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been urging Trump to strike Iran since December. But Israeli officials say he wouldn't have moved without Trump's explicit approval.
• It's highly unlikely Netanyahu would've struck Iran without Trump's green light, Israeli officials added. If Trump had preferred to keep negotiating, the strike would have been postponed.

Over the past year, Trump has repeatedly reined in Netanyahu from aggressive military operations, including his bombing campaign last year in Syria.

• And Trump essentially forced the Israeli prime minister to accept a Gaza peace plan that resulted in Hamas releasing its remaining hostages and the remains of others.

📺 Netanyahu pushed back last night, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity that Trump "can't be dragged" into anything — and that the president acts on his own judgment.

Mike Cernovich, a prominent pro-Trump social media figure, said on X: "Rubio's comments are a record scratch moment. He said what most guessed was the case. That he said [this] out loud … is a sea change in foreign policy. There will be massive calls for a walk back."

• Megyn Kelly said on her show that she has "serious doubts about what we're doing."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "President Trump's courageous decision to launch Operation Epic Fury is grounded in a truth that presidents for nearly 50 years have been talking about, but no president had the courage to confront: Iran poses a direct and imminent threat to the United States of America and our troops in the Middle East."

• Read Rubio's full remarks ... Share this story.

President Trump spoke by phone with Kurdish leaders in Iraq on Sunday to discuss the U.S.–Israel war with Iran and what might come next, three sources with knowledge of the calls told Axios' Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo.

• Why it matters: The Kurds have thousands of soldiers along the Iran–Iraq border and control strategic areas that could be significant as the war develops. Iraq's Kurds also have close ties to Iran's Kurdish minority.

🔬 Zoom in: Trump spoke to leaders from the two main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after the Saturday bombing campaign began.

• The calls were the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another source said. Israel has had close security, military and intelligence ties with the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran for decades.
• "It is the general view, and certainly Netanyahu's view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork … that they're going to rise up," one official said.

👀 Inside the room: Netanyahu, who "has been relentless" in urging strikes on and regime change in Iran, first advocated for the Kurds in a White House meeting with Trump.

• "When he first came over and sat with Trump for hours, you would have thought Netanyahu had it all figured out," the official said.
• "He had the successor planned out. He had the Kurds all figured out: Two sets of Kurdish groups here and there. This many people are going to rise up," the official added.

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OpenAI and the Pentagon have agreed to adjust their new contract following widespread backlash that domestic mass surveillance remained a real risk under the deal, Axios' Maria Curi writes.

• Why it matters: The prospect of securing an agreement with OpenAI after blowing up its deal with Anthropic appeared on thin ice unless surveillance concerns were addressed.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman approached Emil Michael, undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering, to rework the contract, the sources said.

• The language hasn't yet been formally signed.

Altman said in an internal post to employees yesterday that "one thing I think I did wrong: we shouldn't have rushed to get this out on Friday."

"The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication. We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy. Good learning experience for me as we face higher-stakes decisions in the future."

Keep reading.

Turnout during the 11 days of early voting in today's Texas Democratic primary outpaced Republican turnout for the first time since 2020, Axios Dallas' Tasha Tsiaperas writes.

• Why it matters: The turnout points to high interest in the race at the top of the Democratic ballot: U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) vs. state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) for U.S. Senate.

🐘 Republican turnout has lagged far behind recent elections' early voting.

• Sen. John Cornyn is locked in an expensive reelection battle with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Polling indicates the race is likely headed to a runoff.

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An expensive Democratic civil war is brewing this election cycle, with a staggering 30 House Democrats facing at least one primary challenger who has raised $100,000 or more, Axios' Andrew Solender found.

• Why it matters: These primaries are drawing tens of millions of dollars from Democrats' efforts to retake the House while priming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to inherit a rebellious class of freshmen.

The collective fundraising in these races adds up to more than $64 million — out of roughly $500 million raised by all Democratic House campaigns so far this cycle.

• Nearly a dozen House Democrats face primary challengers who have raised more money than they have.
• Many primary insurgents — along with a huge cohort of outsiders and progressives running in open primaries — won't commit to supporting Jeffries' leadership if elected.

👂 What we're hearing: These candidates "don't care what Hakeem thinks, they care what AOC may think," said a House Democrat close to leadership.

• Keep reading.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco yesterday that the company's relationship with the NFL is "very strong" and that Fox has not yet had "material conversations" about renewing its three-decades-long rights deal.

• "We have four more years on our contract before any kind of presumed opt-out would take effect," Murdoch said in remarks reported by Deadline.
• "So we feel comfortable with where we are. We think we're paying market price for the NFL today. The prices were renegotiated only three years ago. They went up, I think, more than 100% three years ago, so we think our current pricing is at market. But to the extent that there was any incremental cost for that NFL programming, I think the key thing for people to realize is that incremental cost would flow through to local affiliates, to our distributors, and ultimately, to consumers and to fans."

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Katie Miller interviewed Fox News' Sean Hannity for the upcoming episode of "The Katie Miller Podcast," and Hannity jabbed at former prime-time colleague Tucker Carlson:

"I don't ever talk to him, ever," Hannity said. "I wish him well. I've read a lot of what he says. I just completely disagree with it. And it's not the person that I knew when he was at Fox."

Miller asked if he thinks conservative media stars have become too focused on fighting each other instead of the left. Hannity replied: "I do. … And I've stayed out of it, if you've noticed. … That's by design. To me, the big fight in this country is against the radical left. And [if] they all want to kill each other, have at it."

• Drops 6 p.m. ET on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Rumble and X.

President Trump announced he'll attend the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner next month for the first time as president, Axios' Julianna Bragg writes.

• Trump wrote on Truth Social that he accepted the invitation "in honor of our Nation's 250th Birthday, and the fact that these 'Correspondents' now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T., according to many."

Between the lines: This year's event will feature a magician — celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman — instead of the comedians who historically roasted the president sitting nearby.

• Before Trump, Ronald Reagan was the last president to miss the black-tie dinner back in 1981, when he was recovering from an assassination attempt. He called in from Camp David.

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Starbucks is rolling out a spring menu today featuring lots of purple, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes.

• Why it matters: The launch leans into two powerful consumer trends (personalization and social-ready drinks) while modernizing one of Starbucks' longest-running menu staples — chai.
• More on the spring menu.