With Agency Reports
President Donald Trump announced Saturday that U.S. forces dropped bombs on three nuclear sites in Iran, bringing America into the conflict between Iran and Israel.
“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. “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.”
“NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!” the president added. He did not mention any progress on diplomatic negotiations.
Trump says U.S. ‘very successfully’ attacked nuclear sites in Iran
Trump also announced that he will address the nation at 10 p.m. ET. In a phone call with NBC News shortly before his address, Trump called the strikes a “complete and total success.” Iranian state media reported that the three nuclear sites were evacuated “some time ago.”
The U.S. strike, which was conducted without congressional authorization, comes just over a week after Israel launched dozens of strikes against targets in Iran, with Tehran responding in turn. The attacks ended talks between the U.S. and Iran over a new nuclear deal, after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the previous agreement between the two countries struck during Barack Obama’s second term.
Trump has argued that Iran is very close to a nuclear weapon. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, however, testified to Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community did not believe that Iran was building such a weapon.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. NBC News reported Thursday that “a person with knowledge of the matter said the U.S. intelligence community’s view has not changed since Gabbard’s testimony.”
‘Maddening’: Jen Psaki calls out the media over falling for Trump’s ‘two weeks’ trick
Reaction poured in from politicians after Trump’s announcement of the U.S. strikes Saturday. “This was the right call,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote on X. “The regime deserves it.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and many other senior Republicans expressed support, as did some Democrats, with Sen. John Fetterman saying “this was the correct move.”
Many lawmakers criticized the strikes, though. “This is not our fight,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called the strikes “not constitutional.” On the Democratic side, California Rep. Ro Khanna wrote that “Trump struck Iran without any authorization of Congress” and asked that Congress vote on a war powers resolution he and Massie submitted earlier this week.
“No president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress,” wrote Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill. “This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders learned of the strikes while holding a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Not only is this news that I just heard this second alarming, that all of you just heard, but it is so grossly unconstitutional,” he told the crowd. “All of you know that the only entity that can take this country to war is the U.S. Congress. The president does not have the right!”
