WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Iran strategy is being influenced by a muscular military leader who has been given authority to draw up possible plans for a US strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites, potentially with bunker-busting bombs that could eliminate underground facilities.
US Central Command chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, known as “The Gorilla,” has been leading strategy over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with a lot of his proposals for more military assets being approved, despite other administration officials being wary of more involvement in the Middle East, Politico reported.
The commander, described by at least one former official as a “jacked” general with the “lethality look” that Trump’s Pentagon has been keen to promote, has also been getting more face time with Trump, according to the outlet.
“Secretary Hegseth empowers all of his combatant commanders the same way — by decentralizing command and harnessing their real-world expertise regarding the defense of their respective AORs,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Post, using the acronym for “areas of responsibility.”
“The entire DOD leadership team — from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the undersecretary of defense for policy — similarly provide courses of action and counsel to the secretary based on their expertise,” Parnell added.
“The secretary then makes a decision and final recommendation to the president. This is how the Pentagon does, and should, function. Our senior leaders are in lockstep and will continue to work in unison to deliver on President Trump‘s national security agenda.”
Before Israel carried out its first strikes against Iran, Kurilla indicated that he gave the president the option to use the US military to strike Iran to destroy its nuclear weapons capability.
“President Trump has made it clear that if Iran doesn’t permanently give up its nuclear enrichment, military force by the US may be necessary,” said House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers at a June 10 Congressional hearing.
“If the president directed, is CENTCOM prepared to respond with overwhelming force to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran?” Rogers asked Kurilla.
“I have provided the secretary of defense and the president a wide range of options,” Kurilla responded, later saying “yes” to the question.
Kurilla is set to leave his post at CENTCOM in just a few months after serving since 2022, leading some to believe he’s grown bolder in his approach.
The four-star Army general would be in charge of carrying out whatever strategy Trump decides on in the region in response to Iran and has also been responsible for the US response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Kurilla deployed to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan during his service and deployed to Germany in 2022 to oversee US troop deployment in response to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dan Caldwell, Hegseth’s former senior adviser, indicated that reports of Kurilla being more open to aggressive policies due to his upcoming retirement from CENTCOM could be true.
“It’s been reported, and, you know, based on my experience with him, is that he takes a fundamentally different view of the importance of the Middle East than a lot of other people in the administration,” Caldwell said in a “Breaking Points” interview on Monday.
“He also, I think, believes that a military campaign against Iran will not be as costly as others. So, that’s his view — and I think there are a lot of folks that want to see some type of military action occur before he retires as a result of that,” he said.
“He retires, I believe, in the middle of July — and I don’t think it’s a coincidence you see a lot of the pressure ramping up to do something prior to his retirement.”
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