Netanyahu Congratulates President Trump
In a pre-recorded message, Israel's Netanyahu expresses his gratitude to Trump and the US military. 'In tonight's action against Iran's nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It's done what no other country on earth could do," Netanyahu says. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Fox News
8 minutes ago
- Fox News
Inside the Situation Room, where Trump and his national security team monitored 'spectacular' success on Iran
President Donald Trump reported to the West Wing's Situation Room multiple times across the past week as the conflict in Iran came to a rolling boil and the president ordered strikes on a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday evening in a surprise operation that took the world by surprise. Trump returned to the Situation Room Saturday as the U.S. targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, and was flanked by key officials such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, according to photos from inside the room published late Saturday. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was also in the Situation Room, the White House confirmed to Fox Digital. Trump publicly announced the strikes in a Truth Social post Saturday evening, which came as a surprise to the world, as there were no media leaks or speculation such an attack was imminent. He then delivered an address to the nation on the strikes, lauding them as a "spectacular military success." "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan," he said. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "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," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." Ahead of the strikes, Trump floated Wednesday he might order an attack on Iran as negotiations on its nuclear program fell apart and the president made repeated trips to the Situation Room. "Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this that Iran's got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate," Trump told reporters Wednesday on the U.S. potentially striking Iran as it continues trading deadly strikes with Israel. "And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn't you go? I said to people, why didn't you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country. It's very sad to watch this." Fox News Digital spoke to previous presidential administration officials — Fox News host and former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who served under the first Trump administration, and former National Security Advisor under the first Trump administration John Bolton, who also served as ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush's administration. They both conveyed the serious and historic tone the room and its meetings typically hold. The Situation Room is a high-tech 5,000-square-foot complex in the West Wing of the White House that includes multiple conference rooms. President John F. Kennedy commissioned the complex in 1961 following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba that same year, according to the National Archives. The complex was built in order to provide future presidents a dedicated area for crisis management, and was revamped in 2006 and renovated again in 2023. "I often would sit there and think about the Osama bin Laden raid," McEnany told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Thursday morning. "This is where we saw our heroic Special Forces take out Osama bin Laden during the Obama administration. And I think we're at another point where similar decisions are being made, and even bigger decisions that may change the course of history are happening right now in that room." Trump had spent hours in the Situation Room since June 16, including on Thursday morning, when he received an intelligence briefing with national security advisers, which followed a Situation Room meeting on Wednesday afternoon, another meeting on Tuesday afternoon with national security advisers and a Monday evening meeting upon his abrupt return from the G7 summit in Canada this week. Top national security officials, including Hegseth, Gabbard, Vance, Rubio and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, were among officials who joined Trump in the meetings as the administration weighs the spiraling conflict. Bolton explained to Fox Digital in a Thursday morning phone interview that two types of top-level meetings are held in the Situation Room. The first is known as a "principals meeting," he said, which includes Cabinet secretaries, such as the secretary of state and secretary of defense, and is chaired by the national security advisor — a role currently filled by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "The principals committee usually meets to try and get everything sorted out so that they know what decisions the president is going to be confronted with," Bolton said. "They try and make sure all the information is pulled together so we can make an informed decision, set out the options they see, what the pros and cons are, and then have (the president) briefed." The second type of Situation Room meeting at the top level are official National Security Council meetings, which the president chairs. "He chairs a full NSC meeting, and people review the information, update the situation, and the president can go back and forth with the advisors about asking questions, probing about the analysis, asking for more detail on something, kind of picking and choosing among the options, or suggesting new options," said Bolton, who served as Trump's national security advisor between April 2018 and September 2019. "And out of that could well come decisions," he added. McEnany served as the first Trump administration's top spokeswoman at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Coronavirus Task Force operated out of the Situation Room as COVID-19 swept across the nation. "A lot of critical decisions were made during the pandemic," she said. "It's a humbling encounter. Every time you go in, you leave your phone at the door. You go in, I think it's like 5,000 square feet, you're sitting there, there's clocks up from every country around the world, the different time zones. And you're just sitting there as critical decisions are made. And, in my case, it was regarding the pandemic, and there's back and forth, there's deliberation, and these decisions are made with the president there, obviously." She continued that during the pandemic, the task force would spend hours in the Situation Room on a daily basis as the team fielded an onslaught of updates from across the country. Trump frequently received the top lines from the meetings and joined the Situation Room during key decisions amid the spread of the virus. "When he was in there, absolutely, there's a deference," she said, referring to how the tone of the room would change upon Trump's arrival. "Yet, you had key officials who spoke up, who were not afraid to give their point of view to him. But I think there's a recognition he's the commander in chief." Press secretaries typically do not attend high-profile National Security Council meetings in the Situation Room, but have security clearances and can call into the room if needed, and are given updates from senior officials. McEnany added that press secretaries wouldn't typically want to be in the room for high-stakes talks because "you don't want your head filled with these sensitive deliberations of classified information" when speaking with the media. Bolton explained that for an issue such as Iran, the Situation Room meetings were likely restrictive and included top national security officials, such as the secretary of defense, director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Sometimes it includes many more people, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Commerce Secretary, things like that," he said. "But in with this kind of decision, it could be very restrictive, so maybe just – well, there is no national security advisor – but, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, CIA Director, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maybe the attorney general." Trump's first national security advisor under the second administration, Mike Waltz, was removed from the role and nominated as the next U.S. ambassador to the UN in May, with Rubio taking on the additional role. The White House has also slashed NSC staffing since Trump took office, including after Rubio took the helm. Ahead of the surprise strikes on Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press conference on Thursday — the first since Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran June 12 — and said the next two weeks would be a critical time period as U.S. officials map out next steps. "I have a message directly from the president, and I quote: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future. I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' That's a quote directly from the president," she said Thursday. Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." He added that if Israel had not acted, "Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time." Dubbed "Operation Rising Lion," the strikes targeted Iran's nuclear and missile infrastructure and killed a handful of senior Iranian military leaders. Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for Sunday in Oman. "Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign," Trump posted to Truth Social Monday evening, when he abruptly left an ongoing G7 summit in Canada to better focus on the Israel–Iran conflict. "What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" Trump said during his address to the nation on Saturday evening following the strikes that Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Leavitt added during Thursday's briefing that Trump is the "peacemaker-in-chief," while noting that he is also not one to shy from flexing America's strength. "The president is always interested in a diplomatic solution to the problems in the global conflicts in this world. Again, he is a peacemaker in chief. He is the peace-through-strength president. And so, if there's a chance for diplomacy, the president's always going to grab it. But he's not afraid to use strength as well," she said. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on the high-level talks but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News
8 minutes ago
- Fox News
'Not constitutional': Congress invokes new War Powers Resolution to reject Trump's strikes on Iran
Co-sponsors of the War Powers Resolution, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., were quick to criticize President Donald Trump for greenlighting attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran Saturday night. "This is not constitutional," Massie said, responding to Trump's Truth Social post announcing the strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran. The bipartisan War Powers Resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives this week as strikes between Israel and Iran raged on, and the world stood by to see if Trump would strike. Sources familiar told Fox News Digital that both House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., were briefed on the strikes ahead of time. "Trump struck Iran without any authorization of Congress. We need to immediately return to DC and vote on @RepThomasMassie and my War Powers Resolution to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war," Khanna said. This week, lawmakers sounded off on the unconstitutionality of Trump striking Iran without congressional approval. Congress has the sole power to declare war under Article I of the Constitution. The War Powers Resolution seeks to "remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic State of Iran" and directs Trump to "terminate" the deployment of American troops against Iran without an "authorized declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military forces against Iran." As Trump announced his strikes against Iran – without congressional approval – Khanna said representatives should return to Capitol Hill to prevent further escalation. In the upper chamber, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced his own war powers resolution ahead of the bipartisan duo in the House. While the resolution had been gaining steam with his colleagues, momentum could be stalled due to the strikes. His resolution is privileged, meaning that lawmakers will have to consider it. The earliest it could be voted on is Friday. Kaine argued in a statement that "the American public is overwhelmingly opposed to the U.S. waging war on Iran." "And the Israeli Foreign Minister admitted yesterday that Israeli bombing had set the Iranian nuclear program back 'at least 2 or 3 years,'" he said. "So, what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today? Horrible judgment. I will push for all senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war."This week on Capitol Hill, Massie, the conservative fiscal hawk who refused to sign on to Trump's "big, beautiful bill," built an unlikely bipartisan coalition of lawmakers resisting the U.S.' involvement in the Middle East conflict. "This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution," Massie said. Massie, whom Trump threatened to primary during the House GOP megabill negotiations, invited "all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution." By Tuesday night, the bipartisan bill had picked up 27 cosponsors, including progressive "Squad" members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. Across the political aisle, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., signaled her support, writing that Americans want an affordable cost of living, safe communities and quality education "not going into another foreign war." "This is not our fight," Greene doubled down on Saturday night, before Trump's Truth Social announcement. The bill's original co-sponsors also include progressive Democrat Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Summer Lee, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, who called it unconstitutional for "Trump to go to war without a vote in Congress." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump would make his decision about whether to bomb Iran within two weeks. "We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. 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," Trump said on Saturday night. Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and military leaders last week, which the Islamic Republic considered a "declaration of war." Strikes between Israel and Iran have raged on since, as Trump said he was considering whether to sign off on U.S. strikes against Iran. The Jewish State targeted Iran's nuclear capabilities after months of failed negotiations in the region and heightened concern over Iran developing nuclear weapons. But Ali Bahreini, Iran's ambassador to Geneva, said Iran "will continue to produce the enriched uranium as far as we need for peaceful purposes," as Israel, and now the U.S., have issued strikes against Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Fox News
8 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump slams Republican Massie as 'not MAGA' following congressman's criticism of Iran strikes
President Donald Trump slammed Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., on social media, calling him a "LOSER" after the legislator posted a string of social media posts criticizing the president for bombing Iran's nuclear facilities on Saturday night. Massie said on X that Trump's actions were "not constitutional." "When two countries are bombing each other daily in a hot war, and a third country joins the bombing, that's an act of war," Massie said in another post. "I'm amazed at the mental gymnastics being undertaken by neocons in D.C. (and their social media bots) to say we aren't at war … so they can make war." In another post, Massie responded to Speaker Mike Johnson's post in which he defended Trump's actions and said leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of the situation — though "imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act." "Why didn't you call us back from vacation to vote on military action if there was a serious threat to our country?" Massie said in response to Johnson's post. Massie's words caught Trump's attention. On Sunday, the president aimed some words back toward the representative. "Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is. Actually, MAGA doesn't want him, doesn't know him, and doesn't respect him," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He is a negative force who almost always votes 'NO,' no matter how good something may be. He's a simple-minded 'grandstander' who thinks it's good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling 'DEATH TO AMERICA' at every chance they get." The president restated his case for bombing Iran's nuclear facilities, saying Iran has "killed and maimed" thousands of Americans — and under the Jimmy Carter administration, even took over the American Embassy in Tehran. "We had a spectacular military success yesterday, taking the 'bomb' right out of their hands (and they would use it if they could!) but, as usual, and despite all of the praise and accolades received, this 'lightweight' Congressman is against what was so brilliantly achieved last night in Iran," Trump wrote. "Massie is weak, ineffective, and votes 'NO' on virtually everything put before him (Rand Paul Jr.), no matter how good something may be," the president added. Trump also accused Massie of being "disrespectful" to the military and suggested he "drop his fake act" and put America first. "MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!" Trump said. "The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I'll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard. "MAGA is not about lazy, grandstanding, nonproductive politicians, of which Thomas Massie is definitely one," Trump continued. "Thank you to our incredible military for the AMAZING job they did last night. It was really SPECIAL!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN." Fox News Digital reached out to Massie's office for comment on the matter.
