President Donald Trump clarified that his objectives in Iran are to destroy the country’s missile capabilities, “annihilate” its navy, prevent the regime from developing nuclear weapons, and stop its arming of terrorist groups around the world.
“We have the strongest and most powerful, by far, military in the world, and we will easily prevail,” Trump said at a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House Monday. “We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes.”
The president launched Operation Epic Fury, joint strikes on Iranian military and political facilities by the United States and Israel, early Saturday morning.
Trump said he projected four weeks to terminate the military leadership, but accomplished it in an hour. By 5 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday afternoon, both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the strikes.
He said the U.S. has the “capability” to go longer than four to five weeks if necessary.
Trump’s statement comes amid complaints from within the MAGA movement that the White House has given conflicting reasons for the operation in Iran.
“The messaging on this thing is, to put it mildly, confused,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh said on X.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X to clear up the president’s objectives in Operation Epic Fury.
“Let me reiterate them: Destroy the Iranian regime’s missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” she wrote. “Annihilate the Iranian regime’s Navy. Ensure the regime’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces. Stop them from making and using IEDs or roadside bombs, which have gravely wounded and killed thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans. Guarantee that Iran can NEVER obtain a nuclear weapon.”
Leavitt said this is a “clear-eyed and necessary objective.”
“Killing terrorists is good for America. 49 of the most senior Iranian regime leaders—including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—have already been wiped off the face of the Earth so far in the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury,” she said.
Leavitt said Operation Midnight Hammer over the summer obliterated Iran’s major nuclear sites, but the regime was committed to rebuilding and refused to make a deal.
“Simply put, the terrorist Iranian regime would not say yes to peace,” she said.
“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has actively and intentionally facilitated the killing of Americans while chanting ‘death to America’ and funding other bloodthirsty terrorists seeking to destroy the United States and all of Western Civilization,” Leavitt said. “Prior American leaders were too weak and cowardly to do anything about it.”
Trump is correcting “decades of cowardice,” Leavitt said.
“Their brutal attacks and threats will finally end under President Trump,” she said. “America will win—the terrorists will be defeated.”