Potential misdirection likely served a key role in the Trump administration’s successful strikes on a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday evening, which were abruptly announced by President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post just days after he said his decision on Iran would unfold within the next two weeks.
‘We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,’ Trump said on Truth Social on Saturday evening. ‘All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.’
Trump’s surprise announcement came with no media leaks ahead of time, and followed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announcing on Thursday during a press briefing that Trump would make a decision on potentially striking Iran within a two-week time period as opposed to an imminent decision.
‘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,” Leavitt said at a White House press briefing on Thursday, quoting Trump.
Ahead of the strikes on Saturday evening, six B-2 stealth bombers from an Air Force base in Missouri appeared to be en route to a U.S. Air Force base in Guam, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News on Saturday.
Fox New’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes that reports of the bombers were likely part of the ‘misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision.’
‘Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west towards Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike. So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now.’ She said this while speaking with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Saturday evening.
‘But as we knew, there were other indications, and we did not report earlier this week, even though we knew that Whiteman Air Force Base had put out a notice suggesting that the base was closed for so-called repairs until Monday, June 23. Now, if you look at the timeframe of where we are right now, those B-2s would be home at Whiteman by the time that notice and that would be lifted on Monday, June 23. So, that was put out a week ago, and so we should have had some clue that this might have been some indication of the time frame,’ Griffin added.
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson added on Saturday:’Everyone woke up this morning to chatter about these six B-2 bombers flying West over the Pacific, refueling over Hawaii at about 11pm.But it’s clear now that those were decoys and that another flight of B-2s flew east, likely three of them.’
Trump said in his Truth Social post he will address the nation at 10 p.m. ET to provide details on the strikes.
‘I will be giving an Address to the Nation at 10:00 P.M., at the White House, regarding our very successful military operation in Iran. This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!’
Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran on 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 has repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program before striking its nuclear facilities, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for June 15 in Oman and refused to return to the table in the days following.
‘Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,’ Trump posted to Truth Social Monday evening, when he abruptly left an ongoing G-7 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!’