LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Dozens of people gathered in the Highlands on Sunday to protest President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb nuclear sites in Iran.

The protest was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Louisville and featured people from the area who came together to oppose the involvement of the U.S. in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

“We all just hope that we can ban together and really start to build some power,” Holly Gehlhausen, one of the organizers, said.

Many showed up and held signs that read “No U.S.-Israel War on Iran!” and “Money for People’s Needs, Not War With Iran”, but for some of the protesters, like Farah Mokhtareizadeh, the issue hits too close to home.

“We’re really worried about the situation especially the Americans entering the war and what it could possibly trigger,” she mentioned.

Mokhtareizadeh is an Iranian-American who grew up in Louisville. She told WAVE News she was not surprised to learn President Trump had decided to bomb key Iranian nuclear assets, but instead she said it made her sad. She called it the “wrong policy”.

“We aren’t fans of the Iranian regime,” she explained. “But war does not solve our problems and it will make all the problems that Iranians are facing worse, so we’re asking that this be the end of any kind of US involvement.”

Many protesters, like Michael Slider, said they felt frustrated President Trump acted without the approval from Congress. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the ability to declare war.

“Unfortunately, both Democratic and Republican bodies have ceded that power to the president over the years and this was not like we were avoiding some kind of surprise attack,” he added. “The intelligence that came from his own national security advisor, Tulsi Gabbard, said that Iran was not a nuclear threat, but we bombed them anyway.”

Aside from that, Slider, who serves as the executive director of the Kentucky Citizens for Democracy, said the price tag on these attacks is too expensive.

“Every time we fire one of these missiles or launch one of these planes, it’s millions of dollars every time we do this,” he pointed out. “And think about how many healthcare clinics, how many parks, how many schools, how much infrastructure they can pay for in our country if we weren’t out around the world making enemies.”

President Trump’s decision has also been met with praise. Representatives with the Jewish Federation of Louisville were not available for an interview on Sunday, but the federation released a statement that said:

“The Jewish Federation of Louisville recognizes the gravity of the recent U.S. military action targeting key Iranian nuclear sites – a significant development in the longstanding international effort to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities.

We extend our gratitude to the President and to the courageous women and men of the U.S. Armed Forces for carrying out this operation, and to all who work to uphold global security in the face of escalating threats.

This moment is a sobering reminder of the Iranian regime’s continued pursuit of illicit nuclear weapons. Its deception of the international community, and its destabilizing actions that endanger not only Israel, but the broader global order.

The Jewish Federation of Louisville remains steadfastly committed to the people of Israel and the hostages still held in Gaza. We hope this moment ultimately leads all parties to work together to remove threats to Israel and to enhance regional and global security.”

Copyright 2025 WAVE. All rights reserved.

Over Friday and Saturday, the traffic back into Tehran was heavy. People who had evacuated were returning to the city after what had felt like two days of relative calm that they hoped would stretch into more. Some government offices were meant to open today.

Instead, that sense of calm was proved false by the U.S. strikes last night.

Downtown Tehran yesterday. Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Now, there’s heightened security entering Tehran: multiple checkpoints along the roads, and cars are being thoroughly searched to identify any potential internal threats. The people who are returning are not doing it because it feels safe, but because they have to.

Inside Tehran, most places are still closed. Only essential medical services are running and maybe a few drugstores for urgent needs. Government jobs are on hold, some private companies are working remotely, and factories are opening if their workers are willing to return. Many are scared for their lives, and the city remains mostly empty and eerie, more empty even than during the pandemic.

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US stocks closed the session mixed on Friday as investors navigated a flurry of developments across multiple fronts. A Fed governor floated the possibility of interest rate cuts by July, and President Trump put off a decision on whether he would authorize a US strike in Iran.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose just above the flatline. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.5%. All three major averages were little changed for the shortened holiday trading week.

Chip stocks took a hit on Friday after a Wall Street Journal report indicated the US wants to revoke waivers from top global semiconductor manufacturers used for accessing American technology in China. Nvidia (NVDA) fell around 1.1%.

Meanwhile, Trump has introduced a self-imposed two-week time limit on deciding whether to enter the Middle East conflict, via a message relayed on Thursday by the White House press secretary. While the move added another layer of uncertainty to an already cautious market, it also opened a window for diplomacy to persuade Iran to negotiate — an idea its president rejected strongly on Friday.

Eyes are now on European efforts to get Iran back to the table and avert further escalation in tensions. Foreign ministers from France, the UK, and Germany held talks in Geneva with their Iranian counterpart.

Meanwhile, Fed governor Chris Waller on Friday floated the possibility of rate cuts in July, arguing recent inflation data has been tame even amid the introduction of Trump’s tariffs. The central bank held interest rates steady this week, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that policymakers are not rushing to ease, leading to a fresh attack from Trump.

Waller’s comments led to a slight uptick in bets on a July cut, though most traders are betting on the next cut coming in September, according to CME Group.

Read more: The latest on Trump’s tariffs

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CNN —

By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air.

To onlookers at the club, Trump showed little anxiety about his decision to authorize airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that could have profound ramifications both on US national security and his own presidential legacy. The B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters were preparing to take off at midnight from their base in Missouri, destined for Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

Another set of planes was heading west, a deliberate attempt at misdirection as Trump demanded complete secrecy for his momentous decision.

As Trump escorted Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, to an event for new members in a clubhouse dining room, he was loose and — at least in public — in an easygoing mood, people who saw him said.

“I hope he’s right about the AI,” Trump joked at one point, gesturing to his guest.

Twenty-four hours later, Trump was in the basement Situation Room at the White House, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat as he watched the strikes he had approved days earlier, codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” play out in real time on the facility’s wall of monitors.

“Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” he said a few hours later during late-night remarks from the White House Cross Hall. “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

The decision to go ahead with strikes thrusts the United States directly into the Middle East conflict, raising worries about Iranian reprisals and questions about Trump’s endgame. It came after days of public deliberation, as Trump alternated between issuing militaristic threats against Iran on social media and holding private concerns that a military strike could drag the US into prolonged war.

President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sit in the Situation Room on Saturday night. The White House

Yet by Thursday, the same day he instructed his press secretary to announce he was giving Iran two weeks to return to the negotiating table before deciding on a strike, allies who spoke to him said it was clear that the decision was already made.

Speaking on NBC on Sunday, Vice President JD Vance said Trump retained the ability to call off the strikes “until the very last minute.” But he elected to go ahead.

Administration officials went to great lengths to conceal their planning. Deferring the strike decision for a fortnight appeared in keeping with the mission’s attempts at diversion — a tactic designed to obscure the attack plans, even though Trump held off giving a final go-ahead until Saturday, according to senior US officials.

By the end of the week, US officials had come to believe Iran was not ready to return to the table and strike a satisfactory nuclear deal after Europeans leaders met with their Iranian counterparts on Friday, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Trump’s two-week public deadline lasted only 48 hours before he took one of the most consequential actions of his presidency. The operation began at midnight ET Friday, with the B-2 bombers launching from Missouri on an 18-hour journey that was the planes’ longest mission in more than two decades, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Sunday morning Pentagon briefing.

“This is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the president of the United States called,” Hegseth said alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. “It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection and the highest of operational security.”

Early discussions about potential US strikes

Discussions about potential options for American strikes on Iran began in earnest between Trump and members of his national security team during a weekend retreat at Camp David in early June, where CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump on US assessments that Israel was prepared to imminently begin strikes.

The options for Trump to join Israel in its campaign had been drawn up in the months beforehand, with the president’s advisers having already worked out differences among themselves over what options were on the menu for him to decide from.

In the week before he made the final call for US stealth bombers and Navy submarines to target three Iranian nuclear sites, Trump held briefings each day with his national security team in the basement Situation Room to discuss attack plans — and to weigh the potential consequences.

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the Fordo enrichment facility in Iran before U.S. strikes, Friday, June 20, 2025. Maxar Technologies/AP Maxar Technologies This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows the Fordow enrichment facility in Iran before and after US strikes. Editors’ note: Satellite photo above was rotated by Maxar Technologies, the source of the image, to show the original orientation of the moment the image was taken. Maxar Technologies

Trump came to the secret talks with two principal concerns: that a US attack be decisive in taking out the highly fortified sites, including the underground Fordow enrichment facility; and that any action he took did not pull the US into the type of prolonged, deadly war he promised to avoid as a candidate.

On the first point, officials were confident in the US bunker-busting bombs’ ability to penetrate the facility, even though such an action hadn’t been tested previously. Caine said Sunday that the initial assessment shows “extremely severe damage and destruction” to Iran’s three nuclear sites, though he noted it will take time to determine the ultimate impact to the country’s nuclear capabilities. (Iranian officials downplayed the impact of the US strikes to their nuclear facilities on Sunday.)

But on the second question of a prolonged war, officials could hardly promise the president that Iran’s reprisals — which could include targeting American assets or personnel in the region — wouldn’t draw the US into a new quagmire.

“As the president has directed, made clear, this is most certainly not open-ended,” Hegseth said Sunday. “Doesn’t mean it limits our ability to respond. We will respond if necessary.”

The uncertainly seemed to give Trump pause, and throughout the week he said in public he hadn’t yet made a decision, even if behind the scenes it appeared to the president’s advisers that his mind was made up.

Trump departed his Bedminster golf club Saturday afternoon and returned to the White House for a scheduled “national security meeting” — travel that was unusual for the president on a weekend but was previewed on his daily scheduled released the day prior.

The US conveyed to Iran through back-channel discussions that the strikes Trump ordered Saturday would be contained and that no further strikes were planned going forward, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

But Trump’s public message Saturday night after the strikes — warning of “far greater” future US attacks if Iran retaliates — underscored the unpredictable period he is entering in the Middle East.

An April ultimatum

President Trump delivers an address to the nation at the White House on Saturday. Carlos Barria/Reuters

In April, Trump issued an ultimatum to Iran on a potential nuclear agreement, warning Tehran to strike a deal within 60 days — by mid-June. At the same time, Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on attacking Iran so he could give talks the time and space to show progress.

A first round of talks was held in mid-April between the US and Tehran in Oman, led by Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Despite optimistic notes following the conversations, there was little progress toward an actual nuclear deal.

On June 8 — less than a week before Trumps’s 60-day deadline was set to expire — he huddled with his advisers at Camp David, where he was presented with potential options on Iran. The next day, Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone.

Several weeks earlier, Netanyahu had told a group of US lawmakers that Israel was going to strike Iran — and he was not seeking permission from the US to do so. Sixty-one days after Trump’s ultimatum, Israel launched unprecedented strikes on Iran, targeting its nuclear program and military leaders.

“Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,” Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash after the Israeli strikes began.

But senior Trump officials also initially distanced themselves from the attack, issuing statements that Israel took unilateral action and the US was not involved.

As Israel continued its military campaign in Iran, Trump traveled to Alberta, Canada, for a G7 summit, only to return to Washington early “because of what’s going on in the Middle East,” the White House said. Trump spent much of the past week meeting in the Situation Room with his national security team to review attack plans and their potential consequences.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read a statement dictated by Trump: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

But there were signs that diplomacy was not moving forward. Witkoff made attempts at meeting his Iranian interlocutor, Araghchi, with little luck. And Trump had been leaning toward joining Israel’s military campaign in private discussions with senior staff even during Witkoff’s diplomatic efforts.

After European leaders met with Iran’s foreign minister on Friday in Geneva, US officials felt it appeared the Iranians would not sit down with the US without Trump asking Netanyahu to stop Israel’s attacks — something Trump was not willing to do, sources said.

That afternoon, on his way to his New Jersey club, Trump told reporters that his two-week timeframe was the “maximum” amount of time, and he could make up his mind sooner.

US strikes involved more than 125 aircraft

Ahead of the Saturday strikes, the US gave Israel a heads-up it was going to attack. Netanyahu held a five-hour meeting with top Israeli officials that lasted through the US strikes, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone again afterward, and the Israeli prime minister praised the US attack in a video message, saying it was carried out “with complete operational coordination between the IDF and the United States military.”

The US had also notified some Gulf partners that it was ready to strike Iran within the coming days, but it did not specify targets and time frame, according to a source familiar with the matter. The message was delivered verbally, the source said, and there was a meeting at the White House where some of these Gulf partners were told.

Trump and his team were in contact with top congressional Republicans before Saturday’s strikes, but some top Democrats were not told of his plans until after the bombs had dropped, according to multiple people familiar with the plans. Hegseth said Sunday that congressional leaders were notified “immediately” after planes were out of Iranian airspace.

The operation began at midnight Eastern Time Friday into Saturday morning. Caine said that B-2 bombers launched from the US, some headed west as a decoy while the rest “proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications throughout the 18-hour flight.”

The unprecedented US operation involved seven stealth B-2 bombers. All told, over 125 aircraft were involved, including the B-2s, refueling tankers, reconnaissance planes and fighter jets.

At approximately 5 p.m. ET, Caine said, a US submarine “launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets” at the Isfahan nuclear site.

And shortly after, at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET, or 2:10 a.m. local time, the lead B-2 bomber plane launched two bunker-buster bombs at Fordow nuclear site, Caine said, and the “remaining bombers then hit their targets.” Those additional targets were struck, Caine said, “between 6:40 p.m. ET and 7:05 p.m. ET.”

The US military then “began its return home,” Caine said, noting that no shots were fired by Iran at the US on the way in or out.

After US planes had left Iranian airspace, Trump revealed the attack to the world on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump wrote, adding that “a full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.”

CNN’s Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Zachary Cohen, Sarah Ferris, Betsy Klein, Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer, Jim Sciutto, Alayna Treene and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that the administration called at least one Democratic leader and tried to call another before the strikes in Iran.

US President Donald Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which he foreshadowed on and off for the past few days, has revealed a surprisingly broad middle ground in US politics, even as it has provoked controversy in the international community.

Almost immediately after news of the US military action broke, John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, blasted out a statement of support, calling the attack the “correct move”.

Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who spent decades in House Democratic Leadership roles, said the strike “was essential to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon”.

Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro, a likely presidential candidate in 2028, gave a thoughtful evaluation of the attack, calling Iran’s nuclear weapons program “dangerous”.

Other Democrats were more muted. Leading Senators, including Leader Chuck Schumer, complained about the lack of congressional authorisation and the administration’s failure to consult Congress before the strike, but didn’t specifically oppose the US action.

In the US system, only Congress can declare war, but the president has broad power as commander-in-chief to respond to threats. Most defenders of presidential authority acknowledge his authority to act militarily – particularly when the US’s role is highly limited, such as in the Iran strike. Should US involvement deepen, the calls for a congressional role in authorising the war will become louder and more legitimate.

Some on the far left, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, openly opposed the strike and even called for Trump’s impeachment. Ocasio-Cortez said:

The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.

On the Republican side, there has also not been unanimous support for the strike.

Even within the president’s coalition, some isolationists have been opposed to any US strike on Iran. They rightly pointed out that Trump campaigned on ending wars, not starting them.

Media personalities Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon openly urged the president not to strike Iran. Carlson’s interview on the issue with hawkish Republican Ted Cruz gathered huge attention on social media.

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Director of National Intelligence and a member of his cabinet, went so far as to make a video about the horrors of nuclear conflict.

Trump’s reaction to Gabbard’s video was furious. He even suggested he might eliminate her office, which is charged with coordinating America’s many intelligence agencies.

Trump also called Carlson, whose millions-strong following on X is a key component of Trump’s political base, “kooky” for opposing a strike on Iran. Trump later walked that back, saying Carlson had called to apologise, and that Carlson “is a nice guy”.

In Congress, one notable Trump ally opposed the Iran attack. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial congresswoman from Georgia, said:

Every time America is on the verge of greatness, we get involved in another foreign war […] This is not our fight. Peace is the answer.

Trump’s decision has wide cross-party support

It is certainly fair to look closely at Trump’s base and explore divisions and disagreements. However, it is highly likely that Trump’s dominant personality means he will keep the vast majority of his base together.

More revealing about US politics is the support across the aisle for his Iran policy.

Trump’s brash manner and divisive rhetoric make it difficult for Democrats to support him in any circumstance, but the US people’s disdain for Iran appears to be much stronger.

In 1979, Iranian revolutionaries took 52 US diplomats hostage. The image of those captive hostages blindfolded and at the mercy of Iranian radicals is burned into older Americans’ brains.

A generation later, Iran-backed militias killed more than 600 Americans in the war in Iraq. There are other sins Iran has committed against the US, included the attempted assassination of Trump. In this context, Trump’s policy is in the US mainstream.

Why didn’t Trump consult Congress?

It has been the standard practice of US presidents to brief the bipartisan leadership of Congress on key national security initiatives, such as a strikes on adversaries. While not a hard-and-fast rule, the practice can produce more bipartisan support for a president’s actions that he might otherwise have. It’s not unreasonable to think senior congressional Democrats might be more openly supportive of the Iran strike if they had been consulted in this manner.

However, Trump and his administration did not do this, for a reason. There is little value in open bipartisanship in America today. Even though both parties are very close on Iran policy, neither wants that to be seen in public as cooperating across the aisle. Each party would much rather make the case to its base that it represents their interests and is not willing to compromise with the other party. Support from Democrats does not strengthen Trump, as his base is highly suspicious of the opposition party.

The reverse is true for elected Democrats, including those in leadership. They will be more vulnerable from progressives in next year’s primary contests if they are seen as insufficiently resisting Trump. There is no Trump-like figure in their party to protect them from this base.

In US politics today, nothing is more dangerous than agreeing with the other party. There is a premium value on publicly opposing your political adversaries, no matter what the issue. It makes for a foreign policy that appears more fractured than it actually is.