Bluff and last-minute orders: Trump's path to Iran decision
The next evening he left the White House for a fundraising dinner at his New Jersey golf resort, and much of the world seemed to believe that there was still space for diplomacy.
In reality, Trump was already on the verge of making his mind up.
A few hours after his arrival at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on Friday night, the first B-2 stealth bombers took off from a US airbase.
The next day, while the bombers were still in the air, Trump made the call on attacking three Iranian nuclear facilities, in the first direct US military strike on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"The president gave the final order to the Secretary of Defense on Saturday," a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"In the week leading up to the strike, the president was continuing to pursue diplomacy, mainly through Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff's efforts, while the Pentagon was simultaneously preparing the operation," added the official.
'Misdirection'
Trump's "two weeks" gambit appeared to be part of a broader campaign of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called "misdirection," which included several B-2s flying in the opposite direction as a decoy.
Trump, the tycoon who prides himself as an expert on the "art of the deal," had ladled on the strategic ambiguity all week.
First he flew home early from the G7 summit for talks with his national security team. Then he unleashed a barrage of bellicose social media posts against Iran's supreme leader. On Wednesday he said that "I may do it, I may not" when asked about striking Iran.
Finally, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a statement from Trump in the White House briefing room on Thursday, saying there was a "substantial" chance of talks and that he would decide "whether or not to go within the next two weeks."
It played into a frequent criticism of Trump for setting two-week deadlines on everything from Ukraine to health care and then ignoring them.
But behind the scenes, Trump was increasingly determined, US officials said.
Trump had opposed Israel attacking Iran right up until it did so on June 13 -- but afterwards he openly admired Israel's success and was talking daily to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel's achievement of air superiority over Iran presented Trump with a unique opportunity to hit the nuclear program that he had railed against since his first term.
Trump was "briefed daily on the Israelis' efforts and the operation itself as he decided whether to move forward," the senior White House official said.
The US commander-in-chief held daily meetings with his National Security Council in the White House's basement Situation Room as he pondered his options.
And to head off opposition in his "Make America Great Again" movement to another Middle Eastern "forever war", he reportedly met his influential former aide Steve Bannon.
'Highly classified'
In public, Trump and the White House took pains to keep things under wraps.
The normally talkative Trump said nothing to reporters as he returned to the White House on Saturday night, just one minute after his scheduled 6 pm arrival.
The timing was precise for a reason.
The first B-2 bomber dropped its bombs just 40 minutes later, at 6:40 pm US time, or 2:10 am Sunday Iranian time. The last submarine-fired Tomahawk missiles struck at 7:05 pm.
Trump announced the "very successful" strikes in a Truth Social post at 7:50 pm.
The White House then released pictures of a pensive looking Trump in the Situation Room, wearing his red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap.
"This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan," US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said on Sunday.
But the tough decisions are far from over for Trump, who was meeting his top team again on Monday in the Oval Office.
How will he respond to Iran's retaliation on Monday? If the US strikes did not completely destroy Iran's nuclear sites as he claimed, will he launch more?
Above all, will Trump go further than striking Iran's nuclear plants?
"If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change???" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Iran attacks US base in Qatar, Trump says ‘it's time for peace'
Iran announced it had launched missiles at a US base in Qatar Monday in retaliation for American strikes on key nuclear facilities, with US President Donald Trump shrugging off the response as "very weak" and saying it was now time to make peace. A US defence official said no one was hurt in the attack -- which Trump said Iran had given advanced notice of -- and oil prices sank afterwards as traders breathed a sigh of relief at what one analyst called the "somewhat measured" response. Qatar, which lies 190 kilometres (120 miles) south of Iran and is home to the largest US military facility in the Middle East, said its "air defences successfully intercepted a missile attack targeting Al Udeid Air Base". Iran's National Security Council confirmed having targeted the base "in response to the US aggressive and insolent action against Iran's nuclear sites and facilities". 07:33 In its statement, the council said the number of missiles used "was the same as the number of bombs that the US had used", in a signal that it had calibrated its response to be directly proportional. After more than a week of Israeli strikes on nuclear and military targets across Iran, the United States joined its ally's campaign on Sunday, carrying out attacks on three key Iranian nuclear facilities, including on an underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo using massive bunker-busting bombs. "Iran has officially responded to our Obliteration of their Nuclear Facilities with a very weak response, which we expected, and have very effectively countered," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform after the attack, thanking Tehran "for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost, and nobody to be injured". Adding that Iran had "gotten it all out of their 'system'," he said: "Perhaps Iran can now proceed to Peace and Harmony in the Region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same." The New York Times, citing Iranian officials, reported that the response had been designed to allow "all sides an exit ramp", drawing a parallel to a similar Iranian attack on a US base in Iraq following Washington's assassination of top Iranian general in 2020. With international concern mounting that Israel 's campaign in Iran could lead to a regional spillover -- concern that only intensified after the US strikes -- French President Emmanuel Macron said after the Iranian retaliation that "the spiral of chaos must end". 'Right to respond' Iran's security council maintained that its "action does not pose any threat to our friendly and brotherly country, Qatar". But Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said his country "reserves the right to respond directly in a manner proportional to the nature and scale of this blatant aggression". Its much larger neighbour Saudi Arabia, historically a rival of Iran, condemned Tehran's attack and offered "all its capabilities to support the sisterly State of Qatar in any measures it takes". AFP reporters heard blasts in central Doha and in Lusail, north of the capital, on Monday evening, and saw projectiles moving across the night sky. The US defence official said Al Udeid was "attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles", and Ansari said it had been evacuated as a precaution ahead of time. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said six missiles had hit the base, according to state media. 42:55 Iranians gathered in central Tehran on Monday night to celebrate the attack, images on state TV showed, with some waving the flag of the Islamic republic and chanting "Death to America". Earlier in the day, Qatar had announced the temporary closure of its airspace in light of "developments in the region", while foreign embassies there including that of the United States had warned their citizens to shelter in place. After the attack, Qatar said "the security situation in the country is stable, and there is no cause for concern". Tehran strikes Just as Iran was announcing the new attacks, blasts were heard in the north of Tehran, according to an AFP journalist, who reported yellow flashes typical of Iranian air defences in the sky over the capital shortly before 9:00 pm (1730 GMT). Earlier in the day Israel reported carrying out what it said were its most powerful strikes yet on Tehran. Iran, in turn, fired missile barrages at Israel. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military hit sites in Tehran including Evin prison, which Katz said "holds political prisoners and regime opponents", as well as command centres for the domestic Basij paramilitary and the Revolutionary Guards. Iranian media and the Israeli military said Israel also struck Fordo on Monday "in order to obstruct access routes" to the site. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people, Iran's health ministry has said. Iran's attacks on Israel have killed 24 people, according to official figures. China urged both Iran and Israel to prevent the conflict from spilling over, warning of potential economic fallout. Oil prices fall Oil prices sank more than six percent on Monday after the attack. Around 1815 GMT, futures for West Texas Intermediate fell 6.5 percent to $69.96 a barrel, while Brent oil futures dropped 6.4 percent to $72.07 a barrel, its lowest level in 10 days. John Kilduff of Again Capital described the Iranian action as "somewhat measured". "This is a face-saving measure by the Iranians and hopefully the diplomatic off-ramp will be taken," Kilduff said. On Sunday, after the Pentagon stressed the goal of US intervention was not to topple the Iranian government, Trump had openly toyed with the idea. "If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change???" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Trump wants quick win in Iran, but goal remains elusive
But with Trump musing about everything from "unconditional surrender" to regime change, it remains to be seen if the US intervention will remain limited -- or if Iran will let it be. Two days after the United States bombed Iran's key nuclear sites as part of an Israeli-led military campaign, Iran fired missiles at a major US base in Qatar that were shot down. Trump said that Iran gave advance notice of the missiles and offered thanks, apparently seeing a choreography to show that Iran can hit back without causing American casualties that would be sure to trigger another US strike. Iran acted similarly in 2020 when Trump ordered the killing of top general Qasem Soleimani, hitting back at a base in Iraq housing US troops without killing any -- and tensions then subsided. But Israel's strikes on Iran starting on June 13 mark the biggest attack on the region's second most populous country since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, with the risks potentially existential for the Islamic Republic. Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, said that the US strike was "incredibly successful" on a tactical level but "it's not clear that it's actually achieved the operational or strategic objectives." Iran is suspected to have moved highly enriched uranium stockpiles out of targeted sites. Iran also has plenty of other options to respond, including by threatening global oil prices through action in the oil-rich Gulf -- which can range from closing the Strait of Hormuz to harassing ships with low-cost drones. "The Middle East is a theater where US military success, hearkening back to the first Gulf War, has often proved to be rather ephemeral and led to long-term commitments in terms of US forces to maintain stability after that initial success," she said. Trump warms to interventionism Trump campaigned by billing himself as anti-war and just last month delivered a speech in Riyadh in which he denounced "nation-builders" who failed by "intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves." But Trump, always in tune with television images, quickly backed Israel after the apparent success of initial strikes, even through Trump had publicly urged Netanyahu to hold off and give a chance for diplomacy. Since then, and despite criticism from some in his right-wing base who loathe US interventionism, Trump has dialed up the tone. He has taken to social media to urge Tehran's nearly 10 million people to evacuate, to demand "unconditional surrender" by Iran even though he said the United States was not at war, and to speak of the benefits of regime change, refashioning his campaign slogan to say, "Make Iran Great Again." Netanyahu has also expanded goals well beyond nuclear sites, with Israel striking the gate of Evin prison, notorious for jailing political prisoners. Netanyahu has called on Iranians to rise up against Iran's theocratic government, which has long faced wide domestic opposition. Iran under the Shah, who was deposed in 1979, was an ally of the West and Israel. But some Iran watchers expect a nationalist backlash against US and Israeli strikes -- and so long as the Islamic republic is in place, the next moves for Trump are murky. The United States and Israel may have pushed back the Iranian nuclear program but it is unclear if Tehran would accept a binding agreement, said Max Boot, a military historian at the Council on Foreign Relations who was an advocate for the 2003 Iraq invasion. If Iran does not, "we're locked in this kind of perpetual war with Iran, where every time there's any detection of any advance in their nuclear program, then Israeli aircraft are going to wind up having to bomb again," he said.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
Bluff and last-minute orders: Trump's path to Iran decision
The next evening he left the White House for a fundraising dinner at his New Jersey golf resort, and much of the world seemed to believe that there was still space for diplomacy. In reality, Trump was already on the verge of making his mind up. A few hours after his arrival at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on Friday night, the first B-2 stealth bombers took off from a US airbase. The next day, while the bombers were still in the air, Trump made the call on attacking three Iranian nuclear facilities, in the first direct US military strike on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "The president gave the final order to the Secretary of Defense on Saturday," a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "In the week leading up to the strike, the president was continuing to pursue diplomacy, mainly through Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff's efforts, while the Pentagon was simultaneously preparing the operation," added the official. 'Misdirection' Trump's "two weeks" gambit appeared to be part of a broader campaign of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called "misdirection," which included several B-2s flying in the opposite direction as a decoy. Trump, the tycoon who prides himself as an expert on the "art of the deal," had ladled on the strategic ambiguity all week. First he flew home early from the G7 summit for talks with his national security team. Then he unleashed a barrage of bellicose social media posts against Iran's supreme leader. On Wednesday he said that "I may do it, I may not" when asked about striking Iran. Finally, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a statement from Trump in the White House briefing room on Thursday, saying there was a "substantial" chance of talks and that he would decide "whether or not to go within the next two weeks." It played into a frequent criticism of Trump for setting two-week deadlines on everything from Ukraine to health care and then ignoring them. But behind the scenes, Trump was increasingly determined, US officials said. Trump had opposed Israel attacking Iran right up until it did so on June 13 -- but afterwards he openly admired Israel's success and was talking daily to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel's achievement of air superiority over Iran presented Trump with a unique opportunity to hit the nuclear program that he had railed against since his first term. Trump was "briefed daily on the Israelis' efforts and the operation itself as he decided whether to move forward," the senior White House official said. The US commander-in-chief held daily meetings with his National Security Council in the White House's basement Situation Room as he pondered his options. And to head off opposition in his "Make America Great Again" movement to another Middle Eastern "forever war", he reportedly met his influential former aide Steve Bannon. 'Highly classified' In public, Trump and the White House took pains to keep things under wraps. The normally talkative Trump said nothing to reporters as he returned to the White House on Saturday night, just one minute after his scheduled 6 pm arrival. The timing was precise for a reason. The first B-2 bomber dropped its bombs just 40 minutes later, at 6:40 pm US time, or 2:10 am Sunday Iranian time. The last submarine-fired Tomahawk missiles struck at 7:05 pm. Trump announced the "very successful" strikes in a Truth Social post at 7:50 pm. The White House then released pictures of a pensive looking Trump in the Situation Room, wearing his red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap. "This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan," US Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said on Sunday. But the tough decisions are far from over for Trump, who was meeting his top team again on Monday in the Oval Office. How will he respond to Iran's retaliation on Monday? If the US strikes did not completely destroy Iran's nuclear sites as he claimed, will he launch more? Above all, will Trump go further than striking Iran's nuclear plants? "If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change???" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
