President Donald Trump announced Saturday night that the U.S. has struck three nuclear sites in Iran, deeming the operation “very successful.”
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “All planes are safely on their way home.”
The announcement comes more than a week after Israel began attacks on Iran, claiming that the country was close to assembling nuclear weapons — something U.S. intelligence has challenged. And it marks one of Trump’s most significant decisions so far of his second presidency, with potentially far-reaching consequences in the region and politically at home.
The president is expected to address the nation at 10 p.m. EST.
Trump had said earlier this week that he would decide whether to join Israel’s strikes “within two weeks.”
“We’re going to see what that period of time is, but I’m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” the president told reporters on Friday.
Saturday marked the first time since the Iranian revolution in 1979 that the U.S. has used the Air Force to target major facilities in Iran.
A person familiar with the matter told NOTUS that Speaker Mike Johnson was briefed on the bombings beforehand. “This is America First policy in action,” he posted in a statement on X. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was also briefed ahead of time, a separate person familiar told NOTUS. “As we take action tonight to ensure a nuclear weapon remains out of reach for Iran, I stand with President Trump and pray for the American troops and personnel in harm’s way,” he posted on X.
The president also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a White House official, and the U.S. gave Israel notice of the attacks beforehand.
The possibility of a strike had exposed fissures in the Republican Party between its more isolationist and interventionist wings, which Trump has bounced between for years. The immediate response on X made clear that tension is still here: Sen. Lindsey Graham praised Trump’s decision as “the right call”; Rep. Thomas Massie said, “This is not constitutional.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, typically one of Trump’s most reliable allies, posted, “Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war.”
The president has said for decades that it was unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, a line the White House has leaned on over the last week to illustrate that Trump had not moved away from the anti-interventionist moment that helped clinch him the White House, both in 2016 and 2024. The president won both of his elections in part by heavily criticizing the Iraq War after initially supporting it, drawing disbelievers into his base.
Trump returned to the White House early Saturday evening and went straight to the West Wing, an official told reporters — he was expected to attend a meeting with his national security team. Officials like CIA Director John Ratcliffe were seen on campus hours before the announcement.
The president, who declined to speak to reporters while leaving New Jersey and when landing in D.C., kept the attack extremely quiet. A White House official told NOTUS on Friday that the president had still not made up his mind and was not leaning one way or the other.
Earlier on Saturday, news outlets reported that multiple U.S. B-2 bombers were headed to Guam, according to tracking technology, as the president was thought to be weighing his decision to strike.
The president had been under immense pressure from both wings of the Republican base since the start of the Israeli onslaught in Iran and the requests for the U.S. to join in. The more hawkish faction of military leaders, lawmakers and allies called on the president to get involved both publicly and privately, while other close allies warned the president not to take the bait.
But over the last 48 hours, there’s been a slight shift among the president’s most notable supporters, as they sought to make a distinction between an aerial attack and a boots-on-the-ground assault, painting the latter as unacceptable. Just in the last few days, the president met with Steve Bannon, a fervent anti-interventionist, as well as others with the opposing view. Administration officials told NOTUS repeatedly that the president was taking in all points of view as he mulled over his decision.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Jasmine Wright and Daniella Diaz are reporters at NOTUS. Matt Berman is a managing editor at NOTUS.