President Donald Trump will address the nation at 10 p.m. ET Saturday after announcing on Truth Social that the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
‘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,’ the president posted to Truth Social. ‘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!’
At 7:46 p.m. Trump announced that the U.S. had joined Israel in attacking Iran.
‘We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,’ the president said.
‘All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,’ he continued. ‘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,’ Trump said. ‘NOW IS HE TIME FOR PEACE!’
‘Thank you for your attention to this matter,’ he added.
A senior administration official told the Daily Mail that Trump gave Israel a heads up ahead of the bombing campaign and has since spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Prior to sending out his Truth Social posts, Trump had arrived back in Washington after spending a little more than 24 hours at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf resort.
He didn’t speak to reporters as he walked back into the White House from the South Lawn.
The White House even called a ‘lid’ – which is when the press pool, which tracks the president’s movements, is dismissed for the day.
An hour later, Trump sent out the Truth Social post, announcing the attack on Iran’s three nuclear sites.
On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said that the president was giving himself two weeks to make a decision on whether the U.S. would join Israel in bombing Iran.
Trump made the decision ‘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.’
Leavitt said that the U.S. was still in communication with the Iranians but wouldn’t give details on whether other countries were playing the role of intermediaries or how nuclear talks would play out.
The Europeans met with the Iranians the next day in Geneva, Switzerland for talks.
Israel’s bombing campaign had started a week before, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanu warning that Iran was coming too close to making a nuclear bomb.
Trump joined in on that assessment Friday, telling reporters as he landed in Morristown, New Jersey that ‘it looked like I’m right about the material they’ve gathered already.’
‘It is a tremendous amount of material and I think within a matter of weeks or certainly within a matter of months they will be able to have a nuclear weapon and we can’t let that happen,’ Trump said.
He smacked down an assessment made by his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard when she testified before Congress in March.
Gabbard had told lawmakers that the U.S. intelligence community ‘continues to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.’
She also said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ‘not authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.’
Trump told reporters when asked about Gabbard’s statement: ‘Well, then my intelligence community is wrong.’
Gabbard since clarified her comments.
‘The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,’ she posted to X on Friday. ‘America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly.’
‘President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree,’ she said.
