US President Donald Trump speaks during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the US Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Donald Trump takes office for his second term as the 47th president of the United States.
Chip Somodevilla | Afp | Getty Images
Five months ago, President Donald Trump promised to be a peacemaker and a unifier. Tonight, the United States attacked Iran, hitting three nuclear sites in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan.
In his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump told Americans: “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
He called his proudest legacy that of a “peacemaker and a unifier.” Now, that legacy is under sharp scrutiny.
The U.S. launched a direct military strike on Iran for the first time since the start of the Israel-Iran war earlier this month.
Trump confirmed the action in a Truth Social post, saying the operation dropped a “full load of BOMBS on the primary site, Fordow.”
Iranian state media reported casualties and infrastructure damage but did not immediately confirm the extent of the assault, Reuters reported.
Saturday’s operation marks a strong break from Trump’s prior promises to keep the United States out of war. The decision is also a sharp turn from his 2024 campaign pledges to “prevent World War Three” and end “chaos in the Middle East.”
“I will stop the chaos in the Middle East, and I will prevent world war three. You’re very close to World War, you’re very close, and we have people that are not the right people to handle that. They are grossly incompetent,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Pittsburgh in November last year.
Trump has previously been vocal about preventing Iran from reaching nuclear capability. In a speech on Election Day last year, he said Iran “just can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
That position, while consistent, had been paired with vows to avoid war. “I want peace in the Middle East. I want peace. I did the Abraham Accords. I want peace in the Middle East,” Trump said at a rally in Greensboro in October last year.
A week after Israel launched its attack on Iran, the latest U.S. strike puts Washington in direct conflict with Tehran. The move marks a sharp shift from just 48 hours ago, when Trump suggested the United States would wait “two weeks” to see whether the conflict between Israel and Iran could be resolved diplomatically.
“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,” Trump said Thursday in a statement issued by the White House.
However, concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions are not new. Trump has long cited his 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as evidence of his tough stance on Tehran. During a town hall in Georgia in October 2024, he called exiting the agreement “the single biggest thing I did” and credited the move with paving the way for the Abraham Accords.
With U.S. bombs now falling on Iranian soil, Trump’s promises of peace are under renewed scrutiny. As Washington moves deeper into a conflict it once sought to avoid, questions are mounting over what comes next—and whether this marks the end of diplomacy or the start of something bigger.
