Trump Says U.S. Has Bombed 3 Nuclear Sites in Iran: ‘Congratulations to Our Great American Warriors’

President Trump said Saturday that the United States completed massive airstrikes on three key nuclear sites in Iran, and that the planes that carried out the mission were safely returning from “an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades.”

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform just before 8 p.m. Saturday. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. 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! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The swift action brings the United States directly into the conflict after several days of uncertainty. Trump addressed the nation Saturday night from the White House, calling the strikes “a spectacular military success” and suggesting that U.S. involvement would continue only if Iran remains defiant.

“Iran’s key nuclear facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. 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,” Trump said. “For 40 years, Iran has been saying ‘Death to America, death to Israel.’ They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty … I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.”

In the runup to the surprise attack, Trump was noncommittal, saying that a decision on whether to join Israel’s military strikes would happen “within two weeks.” But days had barely passed when reports began spreading that U.S. stealth bombers were heading to the region.

The main target, Fordow, was a heavily fortified underground mountain facility critical to Iran’s nuclear program. The other two, Natanz and Esfahan, were large-scale uranium enrichment centers.

Israel hit Natanz several days ago with smaller munitions than what the U.S. brought to bear in the weekend attack. The Esfahan site is where Iran is believed to have stored its bombing-grade enriched uranium.

A senior U.S. official told the New York Times on Saturday that multiple B-2 bombers carried out the strikes. It was believed that only America’s modern bunker-buster bombs – which only U.S. planes have the capacity to deliver – would be effective at Fordow, which was built deeply beneath a central Iranian mountain range.

Iran and Israel had been trading munitions attacks since Friday, when Israeli forces targeted infrastructure and key military leaders inside Iran. The Iranians launched retaliatory ballistic missile strikes into Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said urgent action was required to prevent a nuclear holocaust.

In his address, Trump thanked Netanyahu, saying the two nations “worked as at team like perhaps no team has ever worked before. And we’ve gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.”

As Israel ramped up its military efforts in Iran, U.S. leaders remained coy about whether they would assist. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said recently that the only priority at the moment was protecting American forces in the region.

But Trump was more bellicose, threatening Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei personally and saying “Our patience is growing thin,” while also calling for a complete Iranian surrender. Trump then cut short his visit to the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, flying back to Washington to meet with his military advisers Monday.

The U.S. airstrikes were carried out even as the Iran-Israel conflict was escalating Saturday, as Israeli forces launched their own airstrikes on munitions storage sites and nuclear facilities – in areas over which American airmen would be flying for Saturday’s airstrikes, the Times reported.

Israel’s military said this week it had killed three top commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has domain over militias throughout the Middle East. Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said that the Department of State had begun evacuating Americans from the country.

Trump concluded his three-plus minute White House address by saying he was hopeful that U.S. involvement would end with Saturday’s airstrikes – but only if Iran makes peace. If they do not, he said, “we will go after … other targets with speed, precision and skill.”

Trump said Gen. Dan Cane and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would hold an 8 a.m. ET press conference at the Pentagon on Sunday.

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