Trump’s Iran gamble fraught with risk – at home and abroad

46 minutes ago Share Save Anthony Zurcher North America correspondent Share Save

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Donald Trump, the president who returned to the White House in January promising to be a “peacemaker”, has taken a dramatic step to insert the US into the fraught conflict between Iran and Israel. Far from bringing peace to the Middle East since taking office, Trump is now presiding over a region on the precipice of even greater warfare – a fight in which America is an active participant. In a televised address to the nation from the White House just over two hours after announcing on social media that American forces had struck three nuclear sites in Iran, the American president said the operation had been a “spectacular success”. He expressed hope that his move would open the door to a more lasting peace where Iran no longer had the potential to become a nuclear power. Follow latest on US strike on Iran

What we know about US strikes on Iran Iran has said that there was only minor damage to its heavily fortified Fordo nuclear site. Time will tell which side is correct. Flanked by Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump warned Iran that if they did not abandon their nuclear programme, they would face future attacks that were “far worse and a lot easier”. There were “many targets left”, Trump said, and the US would go after them with “speed, precision and skill”. Despite the president’s bravado, a continued American military engagement in Iran may be a worst-case scenario for the US, the region and the world. UN Secretary General António Guterres warned of a “spiral of chaos” that could result from the American decision to escalate the conflict, noting that the Middle East was already “on edge”. If Iran retaliates – as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned would happen in the event of a US attack – then the American side may feel compelled to respond.

‘Two weeks’ became two days

Trump’s rhetoric earlier this week that Iran had to “unconditionally surrender” had put the president in a position where it would be difficult for him to back down. Iran, with its own threats, had backed itself into a similar corner. This is how wars start – and how they can expand beyond the control, and imaginations, of those involved. On Thursday, Donald Trump gave the Iranians a two-week deadline but that turned out to be much shorter than expected – just two days. On Saturday night, the US president announced he had acted. Was the two weeks for negotations a feint? A bid to lure the Iranians into a false sense of security this weekend? Or did behind-the-scenes negotiations led by Trump’s designated peacemaker Steve Witkoff collapse?

In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, little is known. But in his social media post and in his televised address, Trump tried to open the door for peace. That may be an optimistic outlook, however. While the Israelis have made considerable efforts toward degrading Iran’s military capabilities, the ayatollah still has weapons at his disposal. Things could get messy fast. Now the waiting game begins. How will Iran respond to attacks on three of its sites, including Fordo, seen as the crown jewel of its nuclear programme? Trump appears to be hoping the US strikes force Iran to make greater concessions at the negotiating table, but it seems unlikely that a nation unwilling to talk while under Israeli attack will be more inclined when American bombs are also falling. And while Trump seemed to be implying that the US attack was a singular, successful event, if that’s not the case, then the pressure to strike again will grow – or the president will have taken a serious political risk for minimal military gain.

‘Peacemaker’ president risks political blowback

President Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. military had “totally obliterated” three of Iran’s nuclear sites, including its uranium-enrichment facility deep underground at Fordo, injecting the United States directly into a war in the Middle East.

Neither Mr. Trump nor the Pentagon immediately provided evidence of his claim to have wiped out infrastructure that Israel’s leadership has long said could soon produce a nuclear weapon. And even as the president celebrated what he called “a spectacular military success,” he urged Iran to agree to peace terms or face further assaults.

Mr. Trump spoke for roughly four minutes, hours after he announced on social media that U.S. forces had hit the facilities. B-2 bombers dropped at least six 30,000-pound bunker busters on Fordo, and submarines fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at Natanz and Isfahan, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity,” Mr. Trump said in his televised address, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Mr. Trump also warned Iran’s leaders that they “must now make peace” — a demand he previously framed as “unconditional surrender.” Should they refuse to submit, he suggested, much more of Iran could be soon wiped out by Israel and the United States.

“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” he said. “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”

Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a promise to keep America out of foreign wars, has privately portrayed these strikes as a limited action, one adviser said. But the fact that he also threatened further attacks shows how armed conflict is rarely clean or predictable, as America’s long and costly engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan proved.

Iran’s leaders have promised to retaliate against America if it joined Israel in the war, and Iran’s missiles are within range of American military bases and other interests in the region.

Despite past differences with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Trump thanked and congratulated him in his speech, saying that “we worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” His remarks amounted to a tight embrace of Israel after months of mistrust and equivocation over whether to join Mr. Netanyahu’s military campaign.

The bombing came two days after White House officials said Mr. Trump would make a decision “within the next two weeks” about whether to move ahead with such an attack. Israeli officials were told about the bombing beforehand, and Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Netanyahu afterward, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Mr. Netanyahu praised Mr. Trump after the attacks. “History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons,” he said.

Since signaling that he was considering striking Iran, around a week ago, Mr. Trump has faced pressure from Republican critics and supporters of such a move, highlighting a split within his own party.

Some advisers tried to dissuade him from carrying out a bombing raid. Others, accepting that he appeared determined to bomb the nuclear facilities, channeled their efforts into ensuring he had a full picture of the potential fallout from such an attack and to limit America’s involvement after the initial strikes.

Mr. Vance has warned against the potential of an Israeli-led war aimed at regime change in Iran, and Mr. Trump has told advisers and associates in recent days that he has no interest in joining a prolonged battle to topple Iran’s leadership.

Congressional Democrats and at least one House Republican were livid that Mr. Trump had not sought congressional approval before moving forward. The two top Republicans in the Senate and the House said they were alerted to the strikes before they happened.

Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to send American troops into combat overseas. Even after Israel began its bombing campaign, Mr. Trump was encouraging Mr. Vance and his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, to pursue diplomacy with Iran. The president has expressed frustration at Iranian officials and their slowness to respond to messages. And his team has complained that it is hard to know whether their Iranian interlocutors are speaking with any authority on behalf of the country’s supreme leader.

Now, the Trump administration is bracing for possible retaliation from Iran.

If Iran kills any Americans in its retaliatory attacks, Mr. Trump would be under pressure to respond with still more force, beginning a potential cycle of escalation. Anticipating such attacks, Mr. Trump posted a threatening message in all-caps on Truth Social soon after he finished speaking on Saturday night: “ANY RETALIATION BY IRAN AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE MET WITH FORCE FAR GREATER THAN WHAT WAS WITNESSED TONIGHT.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump at least once waved Mr. Netanyahu off an attack on Iran. But in May, U.S. intelligence showed that Israel planned to strike Iran, with or without support from the Trump administration. In the weeks that followed, senior Trump officials developed options for the president, anticipating that they might soon be forced to respond to a unilateral Israeli strike.

Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump in a June 9 phone call that he was determined to move ahead, and laid out the contours of Israel’s military plan. Mr. Trump, who had been pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran for months, quietly agreed to provide support from the intelligence community. But when Israel began its airstrikes on Iran on June 13, it was still unclear whether Mr. Trump would publicly embrace its mission.

The first statement from the administration after the Israeli strikes began came under Mr. Rubio’s name, distanced America from the war and made no mention of standing with Israel — an extraordinary omission for an American administration.

But by the next morning in the United States, when it appeared that Israel’s first night of attacks had been a success, Mr. Trump began claiming credit for the operation and hinting to reporters that he had more to do with the mission than people realized. That weekend, as he prepared to leave for Canada for the Group of 7 Summit, Mr. Trump told an associate privately that he might need to drop “the big one.” He was referring to the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, carried by B-2 bombers, that Israel wanted, but only the U.S. military possessed.

Mr. Trump built his political career in part on his denouncement of the war in Iraq following the deadly terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet one of his proudest moments of his first term was the assassination of the Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran, an act that alienated some of his staunchest anti-interventionist supporters but that he repeatedly maintained was necessary and in the national interest.

In his address on Saturday night, Mr. Trump referenced Mr. Suleimani as he described the dangers Iran presents.

“For 40 years, Iran has been saying, ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’” he said, adding: “I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.”

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

Law enforcement agencies around the US are closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East after the US launched airstrikes on Iran on Saturday, tracking intelligence for any potential threats to the homeland.

The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal, state and local agencies are watching for any response from Iran or others against the US, a federal official familiar with the coordination told CNN.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post Saturday night, “We will work unceasingly to protect the American homeland.”

Police departments in New York City and Washington, DC, said they are sharing intelligence with their federal partners and are increasing or maintaining a heightened level of police resources around religious institutions.

The DC Police Department said in a statement that there is no known threat to the nation’s capital, but it is working to “safeguard residents, businesses, and visitors in the District of Columbia.”

Security postures around several key areas in the US capital, including the White House, Pentagon and Israeli Embassy, have increased since the conflict between Israel and Iran began earlier this month. Officials told CNN those increases are part of a normal security protocol activated when any conflict of this size begins.

The New York City Police Department said in a statement, “Out of an abundance of caution, we’re deploying additional resources to religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites across NYC and coordinating with our federal partners.”

Before the US launched the attacks, law enforcement officials told CNN that while there was no uptick in the already heightened threat posed against the US by Iran, that story could quickly change.

President Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. military had bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites, including its uranium-enrichment facility deep underground at Fordo, injecting the United States directly into a war in the Middle East.

The president made the announcement on his social media website, Truth Social, shortly before 8 p.m. in Washington.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” the president wrote. “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!”

The bombing came two days after the White House said Mr. Trump would make a decision “within two weeks” about whether to move ahead with such an attack. Israeli officials were told about the bombing beforehand, and Mr. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel afterward, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Mr. Trump said he would address the nation on Saturday night from the White House at 10 p.m.

It was not immediately clear how many bombs were dropped, or how much damage was caused to Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium and potentially pursue a nuclear weapon. And Mr. Trump, who had been debating whether to join Israel’s war against Iran, immediately suggested that a diplomatic resolution was still possible. But it was far from clear that Iran would be interested in that.

Since making clear that he was considering striking Iran, Mr. Trump has faced pressure from Republican critics and supporters of such of a move, highlighting a split within his own party.

Some advisers both inside and outside the White House tried to either dissuade him from carrying out a bombing raid and to stick only to providing Israel with support from the intelligence community. Others, accepting that he appeared determined to bomb the nuclear facilities, set their minds to making sure he had a full picture of the potential fallout from such an attack and to limit America’s involvement after the initial strikes.

For months, Vice President JD Vance has warned against the potential of a war aimed at regime change in Iran, and Mr. Trump has privately told advisers and associates in recent days that he has no interest in joining a prolonged war to topple Iran’s leadership.

Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to send American troops into battle overseas. Even after Israel began its bombing campaign, Mr. Trump was encouraging Mr. Vance and his envoy, Steve Witkoff, to pursue diplomacy with Iran. The president has expressed frustration at Iranian officials and their slowness to respond to messages. And his team has complained that it’s hard to know whether their Iranian interlocutors are speaking on behalf of the country’s Supreme Leader.

Now, the Trump team is bracing for Iranian retaliation.

Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump in a June 9 phone call that he was determined to go ahead with an attack on Iran. Mr. Trump, who had been pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran for months, begrudgingly agreed to provide support from the intelligence community. But when Israel began its airstrikes on Iran, it was still unclear whether Mr. Trump would fully support its mission.

When the Israeli strikes began on June 13, the first statement that came from the administration, from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, distanced America from the war and made no mention of standing with Israel — an extraordinary omission for an American administration.

But by the next morning in the United States, when it appeared that Israel’s first night of strikes had been a success, Mr. Trump began claiming credit for the operation and hinting to reporters that he had more to do with the mission than people realized. That weekend, as he prepared to leave for Canada for the G7 Summit, Mr. Trump said privately that he might need to drop “the big one.” He was referring to the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, carried by B-2 bombers, that only the U.S. military had in its possession.

Mr. Trump built his political career in part on his denouncement of the war in Iraq following the deadly terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet one of the actions of which he was proudest in his first term was the assassination of the Gen. Qassim Suleimani of Iran, an act that alienated some of his staunchest anti-interventionist supporters but that he repeatedly maintained was necessary and in the United States’ interests.

The United States joined Israel’s war with Iran after President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on three nuclear targets, winning praise and condemnation from members of Congress, and new defiance from Tehran.

“Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,” Trump said in a live address after 10 p.m. ET on June 21, threatening further U.S. strikes if Iran failed to accept a diplomatic solution.

Bombs and missiles launched from U.S. warplanes hit nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. No U.S. personnel were injured in the operation, which struck Iran well after midnight on June 22 local time.

Mahdi Mohammadi, a hardline former member of Iran’s national security council, said in a post on X the nuclear site at Ferdow, located deep under a mountain, “has not suffered any irreversible damage.”

With 40,00 troops in the Persian Gulf region, the United States faces potential Iranian reprisals in the days head.

Trump’s move was assailed by some conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats in Congress as illegal, while others praised the move after more than a week of Israeli airstrikes on Iran and retaliatory missile fire wreaking havoc in Israel.

“There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump said.

What’s the risk of nuclear fallout from the Iran attacks?

The U.S. attacks against three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, following Israeli attacks over the previous week, prompted questions about the potential risks of radiological or chemical releases.

Both “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” and the International Atomic Energy Agency have previously stated the offsite risks are low from attacks at Fordow and Natanz. But in a June 20 post, François Diaz-Maurin, an associate editor for nuclear affairs at the atomic bulletin, termed the offsite risk at Isfahan “moderate,” because it’s one of the “most important sites for Iran’s nuclear program.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency began posting updates on the new attacks on June 21. The nuclear complex in Isfahan, a key site of the Iranian nuclear program, has repeatedly been attacked and extensively damaged before June 21, said Rafael Mariano Grossi, agency director. “Based on our analysis of the nuclear material present, we don’t see any risk of off-site contamination,” Grossi said.

-Dinah Pulver

Attack used bunker-buster bombs

The Pentagon’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facility employed its most powerful bunker-buster bomb as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from submarines, according to a U.S. official.

Pentagon planners coordinated the attack with Israel to enter Iran’s airspace, said the official who had been briefed on the mission but was not authorized to speak publicly. B-2 bombers dropped GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, the first time they have been used in combat.

The stealth bombers were accompanied by other aircraft, the official said, though it was unclear the type of warplane. The Pentagon’s most sophisticated fighter, the F-22, was a likely candidate.

President Donald Trump declared the attack a success, saying Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities had been completely “obliterated.” The official, however, said battle-damage assessments had not reached a firm conclusion.

−Tom Vanden Brook

AOC condemns Trump’s attacks, calling it a constitutional violation

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the latest lawmaker to take to social media in the hours after President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran to weigh in on the move, calling it “grounds for impeachment.”

“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” she said in the post on X, formerly Twitter, published shortly after Trump’s White House address.

While Congress is the only branch of government that has the power to declare war, however, presidents have engaged in foreign conflicts in recent decades under the executive authority to authorize defensive strikes

“He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

−Kathryn Palmer

Will Iran counterattack?

Tehran could respond to Trump’s strikes by launching counterattacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East, current and former U.S. officials say.

American bases in Gulf countries and Iraq and Syria could become targets, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro told USA TODAY before Trump attacked Iran.

Iran could also target regional energy facilities and block oil and gas shipments from crossing the Strait of Hormuz, said Shapiro, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East in the Biden administration.

Roughly 40,000 American troops are stationed in the region. Trump warned in a Truth Social post of “far greater” force against Iran if it pursues retaliation.

−Francesca Chambers

Muslim civil rights group condemns U.S. strikes on Iran

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, blasted President Trump’s attack as an “illegal and unjustified act of war” that favors the wishes of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu over the American people and threatens to drag the United States into a wider conflict.

“We condemn President Trump’s illegal and unjustified act of war against Iran,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement. “This attack, carried out under pressure from the out-of-control Israeli government, took place despite the longstanding conclusion by our nation’s intelligence community that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons.”

“Just as President Bush started a disastrous war in Iraq pushed by war hawks, neoconservatives, and Israeli leaders like Netanyahu, President Trump has attacked Iran based on the same type of false information put forward by those who consistently seek to drag our nation into unnecessary and catastrophic wars,” Awad said.

-Josh Meyer

Pete Hegseth to hold a press conference from the Pentagon

Hours after the U.S. military launched strikes against three nuclear sites in Iran, President Trump addressed the nation from the White House calling the operation a “spectacular military success.”

He said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will hold a press conference at 8 am on July 22 at the Pentagon.

Trump said the mission’s 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.”

“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill,” said Trump. “Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”

-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

Iranian retaliation could happen anywhere, ex-official says

Terror alert levels should be elevated in the near term, even in major cities outside the Middle East and anywhere Iran may have sleeper cells, said Andrew Borene, a former senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center.

“What happens next is largely going to be driven by Tehran’s next moves. Their shadow wars have never been confined to missiles, drones, and cyber attacks,” said Borene, who is now executive director for Global Security at private intelligence firm Flashpoint.

Borene said in an analysis that there is “a real risk of further spillover if Iran resorts to its historical use of asymmetric means through proxy terrorism.”

Offensive cyber operations on critical infrastructure, or terrorist attacks by Iranian proxies, also could rapidly derail hope for de-escalation and diplomacy in the near term, Borene said.

-Josh Meyer

Peace or tragedy, Trump tells Iran

“There will either be peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump said.

He noted that there are many other targets in Iran.

“If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes,” he said.

-Sarah Wire

Trump says ‘future attacks’ could be worse

“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” Trump said in his address to the nation. “If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

He then described tactics of the regime.

“For 40 years, Iran has been saying, ‘Death to America,’ ‘Death to Israel,’” he said. “They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty.” The president appeared to be referring to attacks launched by Iran-backed militants in the years after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

-Erin Mansfield

Netanyahu congratulates Trump on Iran bombing

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised President Trump for bombing three Iran nuclear sites, saying the decision could lead the Middle East toward a future of “prosperity and peace.”

“America has been truly unsurpassed,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “It has done what no other country on earth could do. History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons.”

-Erin Mansfield

What is Fordow?

Fordow is an Iranian underground uranium enrichment facility located about 80 to 90 meters deep inside a mountain, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

It is located 20 miles north of the Iranian city of Qom.

Fordow was one of three nuclear sites, including Natanz and Esfahan, that were struck by US military operations on July 21 to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

-Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

Bomb-carrying B-2 stealth fleet launched from Missouri base

B-2 bombers took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri in the early morning hours of June 21. The warplanes are known not only for their stealth technology, but also for their ability to fly long-range and carry the big “bunker buster” bombs used in the June 21 mission.

With design and materials that limit its ability to be detected by enemy radar, the B-2 is thought to be the only aircraft equipped to carry the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or GBU-57, known as the “bunker buster.”

The entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers is based at Whiteman, southeast of Kansas City, with the 509th Bomb Wing, part of the Air Force Global Strike Command.

Fox News reported six bunker-buster bombs were dropped on Iran’s Fordo nuclear site.

-Dinah Pulver

Democrats in Congress erupt at Trump

Democratic members of Congress expressed outrage over the strikes, which they said they learned about from social media.

“According to the Constitution we are both sworn to defend, my attention to this matter comes BEFORE bombs fall. Full stop,” said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, in a post on X.

Virginia Rep. Eugene Vindman said Trump’s handling of the situation was “disgraceful.” He asserted in a post that the U.S. was now at war with Iran.

“And so the United States goes to war with Iran without so much as a by your leave to the American people,” he said. “No statement, other than on social media; no notice to Congress; no serious deliberation.”

He added: “This is the stuff of autocrats. Disgraceful.”

War is something only Congress can formally declare. Lawmakers have also passed resolutions that authorized the use of military force like when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Trump has not said whether he plans to continue the bombing campaign, which he described as a “military operation” in a post on the attack.

At least one Democrat came to Trump’s defense, however: Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

“As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities. I’m grateful for and salute the finest military in the world,” Fetterman said.

Democratic Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that was critical of Trump that Congress should “fully and immediately” be briefed in a classified setting.

– Francesca Chambers

Can the president bomb a country without Congress?

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. The president is the commander in chief of the military, which means he carries out wars that Congress approves.

However, presidents of both political partes have perennially used the U.S. military to bomb or invade countries without formal approval from Congress. There have even been allegations that the Korean War and the Vietnam War were illegal. Congress attempted to limit presidents from using this type of power when it passed the 1973 War Powers Act.

Trump was most recently criticized for potentially violating the War Powers Act when he bombed the Houthis in Yemen, notoriously discussed on the SignalGate chat that embarrassed top officials in his administration.

-Erin Mansfield

B-2 bombers conducted strikes on Iranian targets

B-2 bombers conducted a series of strikes on targets in Iran, according to a senior Defense Department official. There were no casualties.

Measures to protect the nearly 40,000 U.S. troops in the region have been incrementally increased over the last two weeks, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Army has been at third of four levels of alert at most places in the region, the official said.

-Tom Vanden Brook

Trump to address nation at 10 pm ET

President Trump posted on Truth Social that he will be speaking to the nation at 10 p.m. ET on June 21.

“I will be giving an Address to the Nation at 10:00 P.M., at the White House, regarding our very successful military operation in Iran,” Trump wrote. “This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!”

-Swapna Venugopal

Republican lawmaker says Iran strike is ‘not constitutional’

Trump’s decision came under immediate criticism from at least one Republican in Congress: Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian who represents Kentucky.

Massie shared Trump’s post on social media with the message, “This is not Constitutional.”

Massie had previously introduced a bill to prevent Trump from going to war with Iran without congressional authorization, which drew cosponsors that included progressive Democrats such as Rep. Ro Khanna of California.

The GOP lawmaker was one of two members of Trump’s political party who voted against his tax bill in the House of Representatives last month. Trump called him a “grandstander” ahead of the vote and said he should be “voted out of office.”

Far-right GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of Trump’s, publicly pushed for the U.S. to stay out of the war, a half hour before Trump announced the attack.

“Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war,” she said in a post on X.

Greene has been one of the most outspoken opponent’s within MAGA of American military involvement in the conflict that exploded on June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites.

“There would not be bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran first,” she said on June 21. “Israel is a nuclear armed nation. This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.”

–Francesca Chambers

State Department evacuations from Israel

Earlier in the day, the State Department began evacuating American citizens and permanent residents from Israel and the West Bank, U.S Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on social media.

“The Department of State has begun assisted departure flights from Israel,” Huckabee wrote in a post on X on June 21 asking people seeking government assistance to fill out a form.

-Swapna Venugopal

How the war started

The strikes followed days of Israeli bomb and drone strikes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at disrupting Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon, to which Iran responded by launching missiles at Israeli civilian targets. Netanyahu had been pressing President Donald Trump to enter the war, knowing the Pentagon possesses the ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment capability.

In his first term, Trump pulled out of the Iran deal brokered by President Barack Obama in 2015, saying it did not do enough to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. As the war between Iran and Israel has spiraled in recent days, he has repeated that Iran “cannot” get a nuclear weapon.

Iran has threatened that the U.S. would suffer “irreparable damage” if it becomes directly involved in the conflict.

The U.S. “should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on June 18.

Only US warheads could penetrate Iranian nuclear site

The U.S. Air Force has the unique capability to destroy deeply buried, fortified structures like those that house Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or GBU-57, has a “high-performance steel alloy” warhead case that allows the weapon to stay intact as it burrows deep into the ground, according to Pentagon documents.

In 2012, the Air Force conducted five tests of the weapon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Data and visual inspections showed that each bombing run “effectively prosecuted the targets.”

There’s only one warplane in the Air Force that can carry the bomb. Each B-2 Spirit stealth bomber based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri can hold two of the penetrators.

Israel had sought the Pentagon to drop the bombs because their penetrating weapons cannot reach the depth necessary to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

-Tom Vanden Brook