Welcome to the Beat. I'm Ari Malbert. We have a big show, including Maya Wiley and Molly Jong-Fast,

coming up. We begin with the Trump administration's mixed signals, formal public claims that they

are in talks with Iran, which many people think could be a good thing if it leads to an off-ram.

But they're also today preparing to deploy thousands of paratroopers to the Middle East.

And that's the news. You have basically conflicting signals at best. Some critics say potential

contradiction on this war policy. 3,000 troops will have the ability to parachute behind enemy lines.

Reporting that officials caution a decision to put boots on the ground in Iran has not

been made, the journal reports, but deployment opens the door to Trump for what they

are calling strategic options.

Another 5,000 troops, a force that is comprised mostly of Marines, are also en route to the region.

Iran fired on Israel today.

We can show you that footage. This is

some of the impact in Tel Aviv. Four injured there. There's also overnight footage, Israel

intercepting Iranian missile strikes, a reminder that this is still very much a multi-country

regional war. Trump is facing the kind of blowback in the country that suggests this remains an

increasingly unpopular war. He's also facing blowback from the worst kind of critic, if you are a

sitting president, and one that is rare and taken seriously, his own former defense secretary,

Jim Mattis, telling the nation, apparently

because he thinks it's important to publicize this, and that is itself a decision that most

Pentagon veterans take very seriously, that, quote, we're in a tough spa. I can't identify a lot of

good options. And he noted the lack of strategy.

What we're seeing is a situation where targetry never makes up for a lack of strategy.

...