White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to social media on Wednesday night to blast the “left-wing media” for claiming that the Trump administration has delivered “mixed messaging” regarding the objectives in Iran and Operation Epic Fury. Leavitt insisted the administration has been consistent in its communication about the overall goals of the military operation.
“The left-wing media is lying and pushing a fake narrative that there has been ‘mixed messaging’ about the objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt said in a post on X.
“From the beginning, President Trump and his entire team have consistently laid out clear objectives to the American people about what the U.S. Military seeks to accomplish through these ongoing successful major combat operations,” Leavitt said.
She then provided the objectives that she and other members of the Trump administration cited as goals. She listed four objectives:
1.) Destroy the terrorist Iranian regime’s missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.
2.) Annihilate the terrorist Iranian regime’s navy.
3.) Ensure the regime’s fellow terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and attack our forces
4.) Guarantee the terrorist Iranian regime cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
In a continuation of her post, Leavitt provided a thread on X, referencing previous videos of Trump administration explaining the objectives of Operation Epic Fury, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Admiral Brad Cooper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and herself.
“For almost 47 years this regime has been attacking the United States and killing Americans,” said Trump in the video clip Leavitt posted. “This was our last best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime, and they are indeed sick and sinister.”
“Our objectives are clear. First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities,” Trump said. “Second, we’re annihilating their navy. We’ve already knocked out ten ships. They’re at the bottom of the sea.”
“Third, we’re ensuring that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon,” Trump added. “And finally, we’re ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
In a subsequent post in the thread, Leavitt posted a video of Rubio explaining the objectives of Operation Epic Fury.
“With an update, I will obviously refer you to the Department of War,” Rubio said. “Suffice it to say, our objectives remain, as they’ve been identified from the beginning, and by the president, laid out clearly yesterday. Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, and we will not allow Iran to hide behind the immunity of a massive short-term ballistic missile inventory, or the ability to make them or launch them.”
In the last week, multiple news publications from around the world and think tanks, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, have accused the Trump administration of not providing a clear message on the objectives of the military conflict. For example, Axios recently published an article, “Trump’s Iran war messaging is all over the map,” claiming that he has provided inconsistent communication about objectives, goals, and timelines.
“Ten days after the U.S. and Israel struck Iran, President Trump’s endgame is a murky, ever-moving target,” Axios claimed.
“Across interviews, press conferences, and social media, Trump floated and erased timelines, predicted the war’s end or promised new escalation, and argued he must choose Iran’s new leader while the administration denies regime change is the goal,” the publication added.
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The Washington Examiner’s “Daily on Defense” shared similar sentiments, also claiming that Trump was “all over the map” when providing updates and assessments of Operation Epic Fury.
“Is it ‘very complete, pretty much’ as he told CBS News in a phone interview yesterday afternoon?” asked the Washington Examiner’s Jamie McIntyre. “Or is it ‘only just the beginning,’ as War Secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS’s 60 Minutes over the weekend? Is the war a ‘short-term excursion,’ that will be ending soon, as he told Republicans at an issues conference in Miami, or are we ‘going to go further,’ as he told reporters later at a news conference?”
Leavitt’s post sought to address those concerns.
