President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. had conducted military strikes inside Iran that left key nuclear facilities “completely and totally obliterated,” escalating Israel’s conflict with the Islamic republic over its nuclear program.
The targets included the deeply buried Fordow nuclear facility, as well as Natanz and Isfahan.
“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said in a White House address, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State and acting national security adviser Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Speaking from the same doorway of the East Room where his predecessor, Barack Obama, had once announced that U.S. military forces had killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and warned Iran of further U.S. attacks if it does not seek peace.
“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” the U.S. president said. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater — and a lot easier.”
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump added. “Remember, there are many targets left.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform following his address, Trump, sent Tehran another warning, writing in all caps that “any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.”
Hours earlier, Trump had announced the strikes on Truth Social, saying that a “full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” he said.
Some critics of the United States becoming directly involved in Israel’s military bombardment of Iran had warned against the move Among their reasons: Tehran would feel obligated to retaliate, and there are thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed across the Middle East.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had warned earlier Saturday that any American involvement in the Israeli offensive would be “very, very dangerous.”
“The U.S. has been involved in the aggression since Day 1,” Araghchi said in Istanbul at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting, while contending that his government was ready to pursue “a negotiated solution for our nuclear program.”
Congressional reaction
Trump’s announcement was met with both praise and scolding from within his Republican Party on Saturday evening.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a statement that the president had “made a deliberate — and correct — decision to eliminate the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime.” His House counterpart, Alabama Rep. Mike D. Rogers concurred, saying in a statement that Iran’s “choice to continue its pursuit of a nuclear weapon” meant it “would only be stopped by force.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, hailed the “extraordinary” U.S. military and “indomitable” president.
“This is what leadership on the world stage looks like,” Cornyn, who faces a tough primary challenge as he bids for reelection next year, said on social media.
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s had an at-times antagonistic relationship with Trump, commended him for “authorizing decisive action.”
“The United States’ interest in denying Iran a nuclear weapon, in standing with our ally, Israel, and in reestablishing credible deterrent power is undeniable and urgent,” said the senator, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
But another Kentucky Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, a conservative aligned with the party’s isolationist wing, questioned the strikes’ legality since they had not been formally blessed by Congress.
“This is not Constitutional,” the congressman wrote on social media.
Several Democrats signaled agreement with Massie’s assessment.
California Rep. Ro Khanna wrote on social media that lawmakers needed to “immediately return to DC and vote on @RepThomasMassie and my War Powers Resolution to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.”
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who has introduced a similar war powers resolution in the Senate, slammed what he described as Trump’s “Horrible judgment.”
“[The] Israeli Foreign Minister admitted yesterday that Israeli bombing had set the Iranian nuclear program back ‘at least 2 or 3 years.’ So what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today?” the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations member said in a statement. “I will push for all Senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.”
House Intelligence ranking member Jim Himes expressed concerns about what might come next.
“It is impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “We also don’t know if this will lead to further escalation in the region and attacks against our forces, events that could easily pull us even deeper into a war in the Middle East.”
Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman, though, sounded a more optimistic note.
“We don’t yet know what this means for the regime’s nuclear work or ambitions, but it absolutely means that the regime has been further weakened – which is good for those who want peace,” the second-term Democrat wrote on social media.
Most Republicans began to fall in line shortly after Trump announced the strikes.
“Support President Trump. You think these decisions were easy? They weren’t. You think this means WW3? You’re wrong. You think it means American soldiers deploying to Iran? You’re wrong. You think it means long term stability in the Middle East and a safer future for Americans? You’re right. Because the regime that wanted ‘Death to the Great Satan’ is at its end,” Texas Rep. Daniel Crenshaw wrote on X.
Senate Armed Services member Tim Sheehy of Montana called the move “the right decision.”
“Iran had every opportunity to give up their nukes. To the naysayers out there, this isn’t starting a war, this is ending one,” he wrote on social media.
Simmering tensions
Since last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and later Trump — concluded, after weeks of talks, that the Iranians were not serious about a diplomatic settlement and had moved closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon and marry it with the long-range missiles and rockets that have been striking inside Israel for over a week during the conflict.
Earlier Saturday, analysts who track aircraft movements noted that American B-2 bomber aircraft had taken off from an air force base in Missouri and were being refueled by aerial tankers over the Pacific Ocean. Notably, none of the U.S. military aircraft had turned off their transponders, allowing them to be tracked by government intelligence services and private entities.
Trump had mulled whether to join Israel’s aerial bombardment for several days, and as recently as Wednesday morning declared he believed that “Iran wants to make a deal.” He even floated the notion of unnamed Iranian officials coming to the White House to rekindle negotiations that were paused when Israel opened its offensive on June 12. On Thursday, the White House also said Trump would give Iran two weeks before deciding on strikes, leaving more time for Tehran to negotiate a diplomatic solution.
During his first term, Trump pulled the United States out of an Obama-era nuclear pact with Iran and other countries that the Democratic 44th president had argued had kept Tehran “in check.”
Trump also spent much of that first term threatening to strike Iran’s nuclear program, but he returned to office in January pushing direct negotiations. When those talks did not produce a deal, Netanyahu decided to act, arguing that Iran was too close to having both a nuclear weapon and the long-range delivery systems to land one on Israeli soil.
The strikes represent a major geopolitical and domestic political risk for Trump. Some of his “America First” followers, including conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, responded this week to his threats to strike Iran by urging him to stay out of the conflict. Several users on Trump’s Truth Social platform posted that they did not vote for more foreign wars.
As a candidate last year, Trump asserted that he could quickly end the Israel-Hamas war and cut a deal with Iran, both of which have yet to materialize.
“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said over and over at campaign rallies and since regaining the White House. Ultimately, the president appears to have decided that the best way to achieve that goal was to order American military strikes.
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