President Donald Trump launched a wave of missile strikes on Iran early Saturday morning before announcing that the U.S. military had begun “major combat operations.”
Trump made no effort to conceal the extraordinary scale of the preemptive attack, admitting that American personnel are likely to die in a war which he says will curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allow the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic regime.
Israeli officials told The New York Times that leadership figures were targeted in the first round of military strikes.
The attack began at around 8:10 a.m. local time, according to the Times.
Iranian state television has acknowledged the blast, which appeared to occur near offices linked to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump later confirmed the operation himself, in an eight-minute video on Truth Social. He did not immediately provide specifics on targets but described the strikes as decisive.
In the same address, he issued a stark warning to Iran’s security forces.
“To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police,” Trump said, “lay down your arms or you will face certain death.”
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” Trump added. “That often happens in war.”
Trump appeared in the recording wearing a white baseball cap emblazoned with “USA,” the same hat he was seen wearing when he arrived in Florida earlier that evening.
The White House has not confirmed when the video was recorded or whether it was filmed before or after the strikes began.
Reuters reported that Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been moved to a secure location, according to an Iranian official.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz separately confirmed Israel was attacking Iran, saying in a statement: “The State of Israel launched a preemptive attack against Iran to remove threats to the State of Israel.”
Katz declared a nationwide state of emergency as Israeli authorities closed schools, workplaces, and airspace in anticipation of possible retaliation.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned Americans in Israel to prepare for possible retaliation.
“We are encouraging all Embassy team & families & U.S. citizens in Israel to be prepared for Home Front Command alerts & sirens,” Huckabee wrote on X, urging them to stay near shelters and act immediately when alarms sound.
The Israeli military’s Home Front Command imposed nationwide restrictions, banning public gatherings and suspending schools and most workplaces, the Associated Press reported.
In Tehran, mobile internet service was cut shortly after the first bombings. While there were no immediate signs of unrest, security forces blocked roads in parts of downtown, the AP said.
The move marks a dramatic escalation after weeks of rising tensions and failed nuclear talks.
This is Trump’s second attack on another country in as many months. In January, the U.S. conducted airstrikes in Venezuela as part of its incursion to abduct the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face “narcoterrorism” charges.
The 79-year-old U.S. president gave himself the increasingly dubious nickname the “president of peace” while claiming he had ended as many as nine wars since his return to office. One of the conflicts Trump claimed he helped end was the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025, during which the U.S. conducted airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Trump’s latest attack on Iran also follows months of desperate campaigning by the president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was awarded last year’s prize, actually handed Trump her Nobel Prize Medal, prompting the Nobel committee to remind the world that the honor cannot be “revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” and that decision is “final and stands for all time.”
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed there would be “no new wars” if he returned to the White House, a promise that has been broken just over a year into his second term.
In multiple 2024 campaign rally speeches, Trump also promised to “expel the warmongers from our government,” once back in office.
Not all Republicans support the decision to start a new war with Iran. Trump nemesis Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote on X that the strikes were “acts of war unauthorized by Congress.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Department of Defense for comment.
