President Donald Trump is currently contemplating whether to declare war on Iran and potentially go after the nuclear facilities he said were “totally obliterated” just eight months ago.
As the Trump administration seeks a negotiated agreement regarding its nuclear program to avoid a possible war, Trump ordered significant military power into the region to give him options for kinetic action.
“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program in a particular, nuclear weapons, yet they continue starting it all over,” Trump said during his State of the Union address to both chambers of Congress. “We wiped it out and they want to start all over again. And are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions. We are in negotiations with them.”
The most recent round of conversations between the two sides occurred on Thursday. The following day, Trump said he was “not happy” with how those talks were going.
These negotiations, amid the heightened tension, come eight months after U.S. troops bombed the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities during the Israel-Iran 12-Day war in June 2025.
Following the bombing, several U.S. officials, including the president, insisted the facilities were “totally obliterated,” even though their comments disputed an initial intelligence community assessment.
In a speech in the hours after they took place, Trump said, “Iran’s key enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
About two weeks after the U.S. strikes, top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said their nuclear program was likely set back 1 to 2 years.
“I think we’re thinking probably closer to two years, like degraded their program by two years,” Parnell said in early July 2025, adding that when factoring the totality of the strikes from a “psychological” perspective as well, “We believe that Iran’s nuclear capability has been severely degraded, perhaps even their ambition to build a bomb.”
Iran subsequently carried out a telegraphed retaliatory attack targeting a U.S. military base in Qatar to save face but not incur further U.S. aggression.
Despite their proclamations after Operation Midnight Hammer, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said last week the Iranians are “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bombmaking material.”
Earlier this week, when challenged by CNN on the timeline and use of the word “obliterated,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) likened it to being in a car accident, breaking your limbs and healing.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t rebuild,” he told Kaitlan Collins. “I mean, people have car accidents and obliterate their bones in their legs, and yet they can still put, you know, they can still put metal back in them and walk again.”
‘Help is on the way’
One of the key differences between now and eight months ago is the heightened unrest in Iran and the crackdown on protesters. In early January, Trump threatened to get militarily involved after Iranian security forces were accused of killing thousands of protesters during nationwide protests that began in late December.
Trump said, “Help is on the way” in a message directed to the protesters. Iran’s security forces cracked down on the protests, resulting in mass casualties, and they simmered down in early January, but the president’s comments continue to hang over the current tension.
Another difference from last year’s operation is that when the United States bombed Iran, it was after Israeli forces had taken out their air defense systems. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with Trump to discuss the tension, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to travel there early next week.
TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘NOT HAPPY’ WITH IRAN TALKS AND ‘SOMETIMES’ FORCE IS NECESSARY
The Iranians, during this new stretch of negotiations, have refused U.S. diplomats’ demands regarding enriched uranium. The U.S. also wants Iran to limit their ballistic missile stockpile and its support for proxy forces in the region, both of which Tehran said were not topics on the table for discussions.
“Well, we’re not happy with what’s going on,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “They should make a deal, they’d be smart if they made a deal. No nuclear weapons — we want no nuclear weapons by Iran and they’re not saying those golden words.”
He downplayed his desire to use force but said that “sometimes you have to” and acknowledged he had not made a final decision yet.
If Trump does authorize a military operation, it’s unknown what the objective will be and could but will not necessarily include pushing for regime change by going after top leaders. Should Trump do that, Iranian officials have threatened to retaliate against any of the nearly dozen U.S. military bases in the region that house tens of thousands of troops.
Rubio designated Iran a state sponsor of wrongful detention on Friday as well. He said that Iran “has continued to cruelly detain innocent Americans, as well as citizens of other nations, to use as political leverage against other states.”
