In his election campaign last year, President Donald Trump ran as a peacemaker, promising to “end the endless foreign wars.” Now he has opted for war, joining Israel’s conflict with Iran. U.S. bombers attacked three of the nation’s key nuclear facilities overnight.
President Trump, it turns out, is more of a traditional “peace through strength” Republican than the “America First” isolationist many in his MAGA base had hoped or even assumed he would be.
In an address to the nation from Washington late Saturday night, Mr. Trump called the U.S. attacks on Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan a “spectacular military success,” saying that Iran’s uranium enrichment sites had been “totally obliterated.” It was unclear whether or how the U.S. had confirmed the extent of damage.
Why We Wrote This
President Trump’s decision to strike Iran inserts the U.S. squarely into the kind of conflict he vowed to avoid, but he has prioritized neutralizing Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Mr. Trump said from the White House. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood behind him.
Israel went to war against Iran on June 13, targeting its nuclear program and killing key scientists and military commanders, including the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Since then, Mr. Trump had faced pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deploy 30,000-pound “bunker-buster bombs” against Iran. Those are carried by B-2 stealth bombers, which only the U.S. possesses.
Saturday evening, after the B-2s had completed their mission, Mr. Trump announced on social media that the three Iranian sites had been attacked, with “a full payload of BOMBS … dropped on the primary site, Fordow.”
“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump warns Iran against retaliation
But key questions remained, including how Iran will respond, and whether the U.S. and Israel determine that followup attacks are needed to completely neutralize Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Trump dropped out of the 2015 multination nuclear accord with Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in his first term. He then said he could negotiate a better deal – and has been pushing for one with Iran for months.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump said he would make a decision within two weeks on whether to use military force against Iran. But just two days later, he pulled the trigger.
He followed up the attack with a threat in all CAPS on Truth Social: “Any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witness tonight.”
Congressional response
Republican leaders in the House and Senate fell in line behind Mr. Trump.
“The President’s decisive action prevents the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants ‘Death to America,’ from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet,” House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said in a statement. “This is America First policy in action.”
“I stand with President Trump,” Senate majority leader John Thune of South Dakota said on X.
Still, not all Republicans were on board. “This is not Constitutional,” Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said on X, a reference to the fact that the framers assigned to Congress the power to declare war.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, echoed Representative Massie’s statement: “We must enforce the War Powers Act and I’m urging Leader Thune to put it on the Senate floor immediately.”
But Mr. Trump has not let congressional resolutions on war powers hinder him in the past, and isn’t expected to this time. So, too, are his core supporters expected to rally to his side over his decision to bomb Iran.
At a Monitor Breakfast last week, Trump ally Steve Bannon told reporters that he opposed a U.S. military intervention in Iran, but if it happened, he expected the president’s supporters to rally around him.
