Trump deliberated on Iran for weeks. His ‘massive and ongoing’ operation comes with acknowledgment US lives could be lost

By Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s announcement of a “massive and ongoing” US military campaign against Iran — and his explicit call for the country’s citizens to shake off their oppressive leadership — put on display his fresh appetite for geopolitical risk and thrust his presidency into a deeper period of uncertainty.

“The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests,” he said of Iran in a video posted to Truth Social early Saturday morning, in which he starkly acknowledged that US lives may be lost in the operation.

The eight-minute recording laid bare both the president’s objectives in Iran — which had been unclear — and the potential for dire consequences. Trump appears hopeful his major air operation can successfully result in a change in Iran’s regime, despite the vast uncertainties about what might replace it and the limited historical examples of air power alone ousting a country’s leader.

“They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore,” said Trump, who a US official said is continuing to monitor the strikes from Mar-a-Lago.

The president reached his decision after weeks of deliberation and an attempt by his envoys to strike a rapid diplomatic agreement that would have forced Iran to abandon long-held red lines. The US military is planning for several days of attacks, two sources told CNN, and Iran has already retaliated across the Middle East, including targeting the US Navy base in Bahrain that is home to the Fifth Fleet, a US official said.

Trump never fully publicly laid out his case for war, even during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, despite strikes being a politically perilous move at home, especially for a president who campaigned on ending foreign entanglements. He noted on Saturday the potential cost to American lives.

“The Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties — that often happens in war — but we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission,” the president said, adding that US had “taken every possible step to minimize the risk to US personnel in the region.”

To many of Trump’s allies, military action had long appeared inevitable. After telling Iranian protesters at the start of the year that he would come to their support, warning the US was “locked and loaded” to attack, he felt obligated to enforce his red line.

“When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” Trump told the Iranian people in his video.

“For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond,” he said.

Trump’s motivations for his second set of strikes within Iran since returning to office — conveyed mostly in curt, off-hand public remarks — appeared to shift over time, moving from protecting protesters to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions to ousting the Iranian regime. He’s also cited Iran’s arsenal of missiles and destabilizing support for regional proxy groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas.

How the latest military action from both the US and Israel advances all, or any, of those objectives remains to be seen. Nor was it clear what the president has been told to expect in the aftermath.

Behind the scenes ahead of the strikes, officials wrestled with a slate of imperfect options that all stopped short of a decisive mission like the one Trump ordered in January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. US intelligence is uncertain on who would replace Iran’s senior leaders if they are taken out.

Military officials have also warned the president about the steep risks for retaliation. Thousands of American troops based in the Middle East could now potentially be targets for Iran as it carries out promised reprisals.

During intense Situation Room meetings over the last several weeks, Trump and senior officials peppered top Pentagon brass, including Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with questions about each options’ likelihood of success. The answers were often inconclusive, even as Trump ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East.

In his vague public remarks leading up to the strikes, Trump issued threats not backed by US intelligence — including that Iran would soon have a missile that can hit the US.

“They should make a deal, but they don’t want to quite go far enough,” he said Friday during a stop in Texas. “They don’t want to say the key words: ‘We’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.’”

Yet if Iran’s words alone were the bar for avoiding conflict, the hurdle had already been cleared. The country has repeatedly said it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, including this week.

There are many reasons to question that claim, including Iran’s previous enrichment of uranium to near-weapons grade. But Trump’s emphasis on the country’s words alone only seemed to raise more questions about what, precisely, he was looking for in a deal with the country’s leaders.

He allowed diplomacy to proceed, despite warnings from some senior officials that Iran was notoriously difficult to negotiate with. Some questioned whether Iran’s Supreme Leader, who has ultimate sign-off, would agree to any of Trump’s terms — even if his negotiators seemed more willing to negotiate.

Many inside Trump’s orbit encouraged him to pursue a deal. His envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who engaged in three rounds of indirect talks with the Iranians, entered the discussions with guarded hopes for success.

But others were less encouraging. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham publicly scoffed at some reported concessions offered by the Iranians. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an urgent visit to Washington this month, said there would unlikely be a more opportune moment to strike Iran.

Throughout, Trump had appeared to people around him wary of taking the country to war, far preferring a diplomatic outcome that he could sell as stronger than the Obama-era nuclear deal he withdrew from. But he was impatient for an agreement, setting short timelines that did not yield the concessions he was seeking from Tehran.

In ordering the strikes, Trump overcame certain misgivings at launching an operation his military advisers warned could have an uncertain outcome and could prompt outsized retaliation by Tehran.

And the new operation — which follows limited US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last June — poses significant political risk for a president whose base has opposed foreign wars. In all, Trump has used the US military to target sites in more than than a half-dozen countries in his second term. It’s not clear how long this operation may last or cost, either in terms of money or lives.

In an interview this week, Vice President JD Vance — who has previously warned about sending US troops into harm’s way for uncertain purposes — suggested any operation in Iran would not result in a prolonged conflict akin to the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“I do think we have to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. I also think that we have to avoid overlearning the lessons of the past,” he told the Washington Post. “Just because one president screwed up a military conflict doesn’t mean we can never engage in military conflict again. We’ve got to be careful about it, but I think the president is being careful.”

Trump acknowledged the risk of a prolonged conflict in his own assessment on Friday. “I guess you could say there’s always a risk. You know, when there’s war, there’s a risk in anything, both good and bad.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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