US President Donald Trump speaks throughout inauguration ceremonies within the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes workplace for his second time period because the forty seventh president of the US.
Chip Somodevilla | Afp | Getty Photographs
5 months in the past, President Donald Trump promised to be a peacemaker and a unifier. Tonight, the US attacked Iran, hitting three nuclear websites in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan.
In his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump instructed Individuals: “We’ll measure our success not solely by the battles we win but additionally by the wars that we finish – and maybe most significantly, the wars we by no means get into.”
He referred to as his proudest legacy that of a “peacemaker and a unifier.” Now, that legacy is below sharp scrutiny.
The U.S. launched a direct army strike on Iran for the primary time for the reason that begin of the Israel-Iran struggle earlier this month.
Trump confirmed the motion in a Reality Social put up, saying the operation dropped a “full load of BOMBS on the first web site, Fordow.”
Iranian state media reported casualties and infrastructure injury however didn’t instantly verify the extent of the assault, Reuters reported.
Saturday’s operation marks a powerful break from Trump’s prior guarantees to maintain the US out of struggle. The choice can also be a pointy flip from his 2024 marketing campaign pledges to “stop World Battle Three” and finish “chaos within the Center East.”
“I’ll cease the chaos within the Center East, and I’ll stop world struggle three. You are very near World Battle, you are very shut, and we’ve got folks that aren’t the precise folks to deal with that. They’re grossly incompetent,” Trump instructed supporters at a rally in Pittsburgh in November final yr.
Trump has beforehand been vocal about stopping Iran from reaching nuclear functionality. In a speech on Election Day final yr, he mentioned Iran “simply cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
That place, whereas constant, had been paired with vows to keep away from struggle. “I need peace within the Center East. I need peace. I did the Abraham Accords. I need peace within the Center East,” Trump mentioned at a rally in Greensboro in October final yr.
Every week after Israel launched its assault on Iran, the most recent U.S. strike places Washington in direct battle with Tehran. The transfer marks a pointy shift from simply 48 hours in the past, when Trump urged the US would wait “two weeks” to see whether or not the battle between Israel and Iran may very well be resolved diplomatically.
“Primarily based on the truth that there is a substantial probability of negotiations that will or could not happen with Iran within the close to future, I’ll make my choice whether or not or to not go inside the subsequent two weeks,” Trump mentioned Thursday in a press release issued by the White Home.
Nonetheless, issues over Iran’s nuclear ambitions usually are not new. Trump has lengthy cited his 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, formally generally known as the Joint Complete Plan of Motion (JCPOA), as proof of his powerful stance on Tehran. Throughout a city corridor in Georgia in October 2024, he referred to as exiting the settlement “the only largest factor I did” and credited the transfer with paving the way in which for the Abraham Accords.
With U.S. bombs now falling on Iranian soil, Trump’s guarantees of peace are below renewed scrutiny. As Washington strikes deeper right into a battle it as soon as sought to keep away from, questions are mounting over what comes subsequent—and whether or not this marks the tip of diplomacy or the beginning of one thing larger.
