President Donald Trump declared the U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities a “spectacular military success” during a White House address to the nation Saturday night, while warning Tehran that future attacks would be “far greater” if Iran does not pursue peace.
Speaking from the Cross Hall flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump delivered his first public remarks since authorizing the historic strikes.
The president warned of swift retaliation if Iran fails to pursue peace, stating: “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.” The strikes targeted three primary Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, marking the first direct U.S. military action against Iranian territory in history.
Newsweek reached out the White House via email on Saturday for comment.
President Donald Trump speaks from the East Room of the White House in Washington, Saturday, June 21, 2025, after the U.S. military struck three Iranian nuclear and military sites, directly joining Israel’s effort to decapitate…
Carlos Barria/Pool via AP
The Context
The strikes on Iran’s nuclear program mark the first direct U.S. military involvement in the escalating Israel-Iran conflict that began nine days ago, and the first time in history the U.S. struck Iran directly.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Trump wrote in his initial announcement. “There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The president then made the phone rounds with a number of national outlets, as has become a theme of his second-term messaging strategy. He told Axios’ Barak Ravid, “We had great success tonight. Your Israel is much safer now.” He phoned NBC News to reiterate that the operation was a “great success” before saying he had to go address the country.
On Fox News, Sean Hannity relayed what he said Trump had just told him about the mission’s particulars: B-2 stealth bombers dropped a total of six bunker-busting MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) bombs on Fordow, the mountain-fortified enrichment facility believed to be ground zero of the Iranian nuclear program.
Natanz and Isfahan were hit with tomahawk missiles from U.S. submarines stationed 400 miles away, Hannity said citing a direct conversation with Trump.
What To Know
Trump praised the coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling their partnership a team “like perhaps no team has ever worked before” in addressing what he termed Iran’s “horrible threat to Israel.”
The operation utilized B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles. The underground Fordow facility, built deep into a mountain near Qom, required the most sophisticated penetrating weapons in the U.S.