Donald Trump

My first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.

For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran's key nuclear facilities, an Operation Midnight Hammer.

Nobody has ever seen anything like it.

Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently.

We totally obliterated those nuclear sites.

The regime then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

They were also rapidly building a vast stockpile of conventional ballistic missiles and would soon have had missiles that could reach the American homeland, Europe, and virtually any other place on Earth.

Iran's strategy was so obvious.

They wanted to produce as many missiles as possible, and they did, with the longest range possible.

And they had some weapons that nobody believed they had.

We just learned that out.

We took them out.

We took them all out so that no one would really dare stop them.

And they raced for a nuclear bomb, a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon like nobody has ever seen before.

They were right at the doorstep.

For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

But in the end, those are just words if you're not willing to take action when the time comes.

As I stated in my announcement of Operation Epic Fury, our objectives are very simple and clear.

We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.

That means eliminating Iran's navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base.