Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference at the Pentagon June 22, 2025. (Fox News / The Will Cain Show)
Trump announced the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran via a Truth Social post Saturday evening, that was not preceded by any media leaks of prior indication such strikes were imminent.
The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
Five to six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly after announcing the strikes Saturday night.
The Isfahan facility, like Fordow, is believed to be built underground, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to successfully strike, Fox News has reported. Meanwhile, thirty Tomahawk missiles were fired against Natanz and Isfahan from U.S. submarines.
Trump later addressed the nation from the White House while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he announced Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace."
TRUMP DECLARES 'VERY SUCCESSFUL ATTACK' ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM AS US FORCES STRIKE 3 KEY SITES
"Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier."
President Donald J. Trump in The Situation Room, June 21, 2025 (The White House via X)
Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."
The Saturday evening strikes were unexpected on Saturday evening, as Trump on Thursday said he would make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks, suggesting such a strike would not unfold over the weekend. While six B-2 bombers that were spotted heading west from Missouri toward Guam on Saturday afternoon were decoys and part of the "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision," Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes.
"Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," she said while speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Saturday evening. "So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now."
Trump earned bipartisan praise from Congressional lawmakers for taking action to prevent Iran, the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, from achieving nuclear capabilities.
Other members of Congress, however, simultaneously criticized Trump for not asking for Congressional approval ahead of the military strikes and raised concerns of the risk of war.
ISRAEL’S ACTIONS AGAINST IRAN CREATE STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY FOR US IN NUCLEAR TALKS, EXPERTS SAY
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to comment on the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said that diplomacy is an unlikely option in the wake of the U.S. strikes.
Iranian flags fly as fire and smoke from an Israeli attack on Sharan Oil depot rise, following Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
"Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy," Araghchi wrote on X. "What conclusion would you draw?"
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Araghchi said he’ll travel to Moscow later Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Iran enjoys "a strategic partnership."
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