Inside Trump's final decision to attack Iran – and how he kept it top secret
For days, President Donald Trump played coy about his plans to strike Iran, declaring that he hadn't yet made up his mind even as he approved attack plans and directed military officials to ready their forces.
Within a small circle of White House and administration officials, it was clear that even when Trump announced Thursday that he might take as long as 'two weeks' to decide, an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities was imminent, and the ruse was already underway.
Just over 36 hours after the announcement, a host of military aircraft – including seven B-2 bombers – were on their way to Iran.
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The number of administration officials read in on the plan to quickly strike Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities remained small. Across the White House, a number of staff remained in the dark about if and when the strikes would occur until shortly before - in some cases after - Trump announced the mission to the world Saturday evening.
Air Force General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the 'highly classified mission' as one with 'very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature.'
Trump's statement about potentially waiting two weeks 'was our attempt to throw the Iranians off guard,' a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the operation said about the two weeks' notice.
'But there was also some truth to it,' said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Trump, who had posed question after question to his advisers throughout the week about how the military could keep the operation surgical in an effort to avoid broader involvement in a war, made clear he reserved the right to abort the plan at any moment, up until planes reached Iranian airspace at roughly 6pm in Washington on Saturday night.
The 'ultimate ultimatum', and the Pentagon's war gaming
Trump repeatedly said he was still open to a diplomatic solution, but the president and top US officials had little expectation that Iran would make the sort of drastic concessions that would convince them to call off the strike.
Trump had given Iran an ultimatum – the 'ultimate ultimatum,' he termed it on Wednesday (local time) – demanding that the country completely give up its ability to enrich nuclear fuel, a technology into which the nation's leaders had poured enormous resources over two decades. The Iranians had repeatedly refused to agree to that over the course of negotiations this spring.
He knew there probably wouldn't be a breakthrough, which is why the Pentagon was putting together a plan.'
Senior official
Trump himself never had direct contact with Iranian officials. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, continued diplomatic talks with Iran throughout the week.
European officials held a negotiating session with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday, but the White House did not expect meaningful progress to come from those talks, according to the senior official.
'He knew there probably wouldn't be a breakthrough, which is why the Pentagon was putting together a plan' throughout the week, the senior official said.
After Israel began strikes on Iran on June 13, some top US officials privately cautioned Trump against military involvement, including Vice President JD Vance, an Iraq War veteran and vocal sceptic of US military intervention abroad, according to people with knowledge of the internal deliberations.
But as it became clear that Trump was closing in on a plan to strike Iran, Vance and the rest of his advisers fell in line, according to the senior official.
As the operation commenced, Trump was on a golf course
A sense of 'camaraderie' quickly developed within the close-knit team, according to the official, even as news reports swirled about internal discord. The official insisted that accounts of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard being sidelined were 'false reporting'.
As the B-2 stealth bombers left the United States in the early hours of Saturday morning, Trump and his vice president were each far from the Situation Room, the president at his golf club in New Jersey, Vance in the air returning from California. Continuing with their scheduled trips to appear at fundraisers on opposite coasts further contributed to the reduced sense of urgency among observers.
After returning from New Jersey in the early evening, Trump walked into the White House just as the B-2s and support planes entered Iranian airspace. The president made his way from the residence toward the West Wing, and within 40 minutes, the bombers were over their targets. At 7:50 pm – 20 minutes after the bombers had exited Iranian airspace – Trump and aides posted an announcement on his Truth Social site alerting the world that the attack had occurred.
Hegseth described the operation as one that 'involved misdirection and the highest of operational security,' saying that 'months and weeks' of preparation had enabled the US to strike when it did.
Among those in the Situation Room with Trump and Vance on Saturday - the team that had been apprised of the secret operation in the days beforehand - were Hegseth, Gabbard, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Caine, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House counsel Dave Warrington, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and James Blair, Trump's deputy chief of staff for legislative affairs.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Dan Scavino, Trump's longtime aide who handles many of his social media posts, were also in the room and read in early on the strategy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had not been part of the core team involved in strategising, but was added to the group on Saturday.
Defence and State officials worked to ensure US assets and Americans in the region were protected as best as possible, while US forces there were 'minimised,' according to the senior administration official.
Throughout the week, White House officials also kept in close contact with influential leaders in Trump's base, including Stephen K Bannon, Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec, to make sure they were being – and felt – heard, according to two White House officials with knowledge of the communications.
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Bannon and Kirk each paid a visit to the White House, with Bannon's lunch meeting - originally scheduled for 12:30 pm on Thursday - running slightly late. The lunch didn't begin until after Leavitt's press briefing started, during which she read the statement from Trump saying he would allow up to two weeks for continued negotiations.
Officials said the president was happy to hear from Bannon and other voices critical of US involvement, even though they did not sway him from taking military action. He also continued to hear from more hawkish conservative voices such as Mark Levin – even as Levin was critical of Trump's claim that he wanted more time to make a decision.
'He was listening to people across the ideological perspective' of his political base, the senior administration official said. 'Ultimately, the president felt this is a decision the base should support and get behind, because ultimately, he's preventing a conflict that very well could have happened if the supreme leader instructed Iran to create the nuclear weapon.'
Those in the Situation Room with Trump in recent days - including top Cabinet officials who had been apprised of recent intelligence as Trump weighed the strike - were hesitant Sunday to put a time on when, exactly, the president made the decision.
The senior administration official said there was 'not really a moment' that Trump made his final decision. It was based on 'a feeling' the president had as he realized diplomacy would not lead to an acceptable outcome.
Vance conceded on television Sunday morning that it wasn't entirely clear at what point Trump was fully on board.
'I don't know that any of us knew exactly when the president made the decision except for the president himself,' Vance said on 'Meet the Press.' He said that Trump made the decision 'right before - and I'm talking about minutes - before the bombs were dropped' on Saturday evening.
'He himself over time decided this was necessary,' Vance said. 'But of course he had the ability to call off this attack until the very last minute.'
Hegseth, meanwhile, claimed there was a moment of clarity, but declined to elaborate on when it was.
'I won't say the particular moment,' Hegseth said. 'There was certainly a moment in time where he realised that it had to be a certain action taken in order to minimise the threat to us and our troops.'
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