President Donald Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. has carried out a “successful” attack on multiple nuclear sites in Iran. The news comes amid Israel’s military strikes and as Fox News has appeared to encourage the U.S. to become directly involved in the conflict. Just months ago, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified to Congress that American intelligence “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” he posted on Truth Social, his social media website, which has been periodically crashing since.
“All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” he wrote. “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! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Shortly after, he posted: “Fordow is gone.” He said he would be addressing the nation at 10 p.m. ET regarding what he described as “our very successful military operation in Iran.” Calling the moment “historic” for the U.S., Israel, and the world, he added: “IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR.”
During his address to the nation on Saturday evening, Trump said, “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” he continued. “If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”
He said that his administration “worked as a team” with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday’s military operation. “There will be peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran,” he said, noting that “there are many targets left,” and threatened that “if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill.”
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Trump had previously been attempting to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran, after withdrawing from Barack Obama’s deal with Iran in his first term as president. On Thursday, Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would make a decision on whether to attack Iran “within two weeks.”
Reuters reported earlier in the day on Saturday that the U.S. is moving B-2 bombers across the Pacific Ocean to Guam. This is the only aircraft that can drop the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which can reach targets deep underground.
The Israel Defense Forces has been attacking Iran for more than a week. On Saturday, it said it attacked three Iranian F-14 fighter jets. “The Iranian regime’s missile launch capabilities are merely a fraction of what they were at the outset of the operation,” IDF Brigadier General Effie Defrin told The Washington Post.
Israel had previously attacked Natanz, but did not have the capabilities to attack Fordow, which is heavily fortified and underground. On Wednesday, CNN called attacking Fordow from the air “a near-impossible task.”
“Israel can hover over those nuclear facilities, render them inoperable, but if you really want to dismantle them it’s either a US military strike or a deal,” Brett McGurk, a former top diplomat to the Middle East under the first Trump and Biden administrations, told CNN on Tuesday.
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“I’m not looking for a cease-fire, we’re looking at better than a cease-fire,” Trump told reporters earlier this week, as he flew back to the U.S. from the G7 summit in Canada.
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During the 2024 presidential race, Trump campaigned on ensuring “the Middle East return to real peace,” pledging to “stop the chaos in the Middle East.” During Trump’s birthday military parade, which took place this time last week, Vice President J.D. Vance told the troops, “The way that we honor and respect you is number one, we never ask you to go to war unless you absolutely have to.”
This article was updated with Trump’s address to the nation on Saturday evening.
