June 22, 2025
Good morning. America bombed Iran’s nuclear sites. You're probably waking up wondering what is happening now, so we have the latest news:
Iran is threatening to retaliate, and U.S. forces are braced for it.
Israel and Iran exchanged missiles this morning.
World leaders are responding to the U.S. attack.
We’re also explaining everything we know about the strikes.
At the White House. Pool photo by Carlos Barria
American bombs
by Lauren Jackson and Evan Gorelick
“Last night, the U.S. entered the war with Iran.
President Trump upended decades of diplomacy when he sent American warplanes and submarines to strike three of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including Fordo, its top-secret site buried deep inside a mountain. The bombs fell at about 2:30 a.m. local time.
In an address from the White House, Trump said the goal of the strikes was to keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon. He claimed the facilities had been ‘completely and totally obliterated,’ but the extent of the damage is not yet clear.
Trump also called for the war to end. ‘Iran, the bully of the Mideast, must now make peace,’ he said. He threatened ‘far greater’ attacks if it did not.
Still, the war continues: Iran said today that it wasn’t open to diplomacy right now. It launched missiles into Israel early this morning, wounding at least 16. Israel responded with its own strikes on Iran. More than 40,000 American troops are stationed in the region, and the U.S. is expecting retaliation. (See American bases that Iran could strike.)
The U.S. attack was an ‘extraordinary turn for a military that was supposed to be moving on from two decades of forever wars in the Middle East,’ our colleagues Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Julian Barnes wrote.
Below, we explain the strikes and what could happen next.
What were the targets?
The New York Times
America targeted three Iranian sites, including the buried facility at Fordo, the crown jewel in the country’s nuclear program. The U.S. is the only country believed to have bombs big enough to reach it. Israel has been asking Trump to strike the site since its offensive began. Now he has.
Here’s what we know about each target:
Fordo: Iran built this site — where centrifuges concentrate uranium to a form used in nuclear weapons — inside a mountain to shield it from attacks. The U.S. military concluded that one “bunker-buster” bomb would not destroy it. So six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen of these 30,000-pound weapons, a U.S. official said. The attack was the first time the military had used the weapon in combat. See how the powerful bombs work.
Natanz: This is the largest uranium enrichment site in Iran. Its centrifuge halls are also buried deep underground, but experts say this site is less secretive and less heavily fortified. Israel struck the site recently with warplanes; the U.S. struck it with cruise missiles launched from submarines.
Isfahan: The U.S. also hit a site that holds Iran’s largest nuclear fuel stockpiles near the ancient city of Isfahan. Israel hit parts of the facility last week but avoided the fuel.
Why did the U.S. strike?
The U.S. says it is joining Israel in its war to keep Iran from creating a nuclear bomb.
Trump pledged as a presidential candidate to keep America out of ‘stupid endless wars.’ But he also vowed to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Israel and Iran, sworn enemies for decades, have been striking each other for more than a week. Israelis launched a surprise assault that targeted Iranian infrastructure, including nuclear installations, and military leaders. Israel wanted U.S. help, but Trump was noncommittal.
When Israel began its attacks, the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said, ‘We are not involved in strikes against Iran.’ Trump said that he would decide ‘within the next two weeks’ whether to help. He took two days.
What’s next?
It’s not clear. But experts at The Times, including our Cairo bureau chief Vivian Yee, outlined a few scenarios:
Iran could retaliate: The U.S. has troops on bases and warships across the Middle East. Iran might attack them. It might also create havoc in international shipping: It could move to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit hub for the world’s oil and natural gas. All the options carry risks for Iran’s clerical rulers. Read more about their dilemma.
Iran could negotiate: The strikes could give the U.S. leverage in its negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear capacity. They may also force Iran to the table. Still, the prospects for a diplomatic solution don’t seem promising, our colleague Michael Shear writes.
The war could get messier: Iran’s allied militias in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and armed groups in Iraq, have not fully joined the fight.
But that could change.
More news
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had not detected any increase in off-site radiation levels at the nuclear sites the U.S. attacked. Read the latest news.
Benjamin Netanyahu said that the U.S. strikes had been carried out ‘in full coordination’ between the American and Israeli militaries.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been in a bunker, with limited communication, to protect him from possible assassination.
Responses
Israel: The Israeli foreign minister said that Trump ‘wrote his name tonight in golden letters in the history books.’ Netanyahu also praised the attack.
Iran: The Iranian foreign minister said that the attacks would have ‘everlasting consequences.’
United Nations: António Guterres, the head of the U.N., called the U.S. attacks a ‘dangerous escalation’ and ‘a direct threat to international peace and security.’
Republicans, including Mike Johnson and John Thune, rallied behind Trump, calling the strikes a necessary check on Iran’s nuclear efforts. Some, including Mitch McConnell, criticized the strikes.
Democrats condemned the attack as unconstitutional and warned that it could drag the U.S. into a long war.” [New York Times]
5 takeaways as US enters war with Iran, strikes nuclear sites
BY COLIN MEYN AND ELLEN MITCHELL
“President Trump announced Saturday night that the United States has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, engaging U.S. forces in a war that Israel launched two weeks ago.
In a brief address on Saturday night, Trump warned of continued U.S. attacks on Iran if ‘peace does not come quickly.’”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Trump announces US bomb drops in Iranian nuclear sites
BY BRETT SAMUELS
“President Trump announced Saturday the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow site that is located in a mountainside.
‘We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,’ Trump posted on Truth Social.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Republican lawmaker on U.S. bombs against Iran: ‘This is not constitutional’
BY AMALIA HUOT-MARCHAND
“Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the most vocal Republicans pushing against American intervention in Iran, posted on X that President Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites is unconstitutional.
Trump announced that American forces have struck three Iranian nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan — and that all planes are out of Iranian airspace.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Fetterman offers support for Trump decision to bomb Iran
BY IAN SWANSON
“Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is offering support for President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, standing out from a number of other Democrats who have criticized the military action.
‘As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS,’ Fetterman wrote in a post on X that linked to a statement from Trump announcing the decision.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Republicans line up behind Trump after strike on Iran — with few detractors
BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL
“Republicans on Capitol Hill quickly lined up behind President Trump after he announced that the U.S. conducted a strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities, a strong show of support for the White House with few detractors inside the GOP.
Trump announced on Truth Social just before 8 p.m. EDT on Saturday that the U.S. ‘completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran,’ including Fordow, the nuclear site hidden in a mountain south of Tehran. He is scheduled to address the nation from the White House at 10 p.m.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
Ocasio-Cortez says Iran bombing grounds for Trump impeachment
BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Saturday night said President Trump’s decision to strike three of Iran’s nuclear sites is grounds for impeachment, becoming one of the first elected Democrats to back the constitutional punishment after the attack in the Middle East.
Trump announced Sunday night that the U.S. executed a ‘spectacular military success’ in Iran, striking three nuclear facilities — including Fordow, which is hidden deep in a mountain south of Tehran. He warned that the U.S. would order additional strikes if Iran does not come to the table to negotiate a peace agreement.”
Read the full story here at The Hill
A New War
(Carlos Barria / AP)
“President Donald Trump has done what he swore he would not do: involve the United States in a war in the Middle East. His supporters will tie themselves in knots (as Vice President J. D. Vance did last week) trying to jam the square peg of Trump’s promises into the round hole of his actions. And many of them may avoid calling this ‘war’ at all, even though that’s what Trump himself called it tonight. They will want to see it as a quick win against an obstinate regime that will eventually declare bygones and come to the table. But whether bombing Iran was a good idea or a bad idea—and it could turn out to be either, or both—it is war by any definition of the term, and something Trump had vowed he would avoid.
So what’s next? Before considering the range of possibilities, it’s important to recognize how much we cannot know at this moment. The president’s statement tonight was a farrago of contradictions: He said, for example, that the main Iranian nuclear sites were ‘completely and totally obliterated’—but it will take time to assess the damage, and he has no way of knowing this. He claimed that the Iranian program has been destroyed—but added that there are still ‘many targets’ left. He said that Iran could suffer even more in the coming days—but the White House has reportedly assured Iran through back channels that these strikes were, basically, a one-and-done, and that no further U.S. action is forthcoming.
(In a strange moment, Trump added: ‘I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military.’ Presidents regularly ask God to bless the American nation and its military forces—as Trump did in his next utterance—but it was a bit unnerving to see a commander in chief order a major military action and then declare how much ‘we’ love the Creator.)
Only one outcome is certain: Hypocrisy in the region and around the world will reach galactic levels as nations wring their hands and silently pray that the B-2s carrying the bunker-buster bombs did their job.
Beyond that, the most optimistic view is that the introduction of American muscle into this war will produce a humiliating end to Iran’s long-standing nuclear ambitions, enable more political disorder in Iran, and finally create the conditions for the fall of the mullahs. This may have been the Israeli plan from the start: Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warnings about the imminence of an Iranian nuclear-weapons capability and the need to engage in preemption, this was a preventive war. The Israelis could not destroy sites such as Fordow without the Americans. Israeli military actions suggest that Netanyahu was trying to increase the chances of regime change in Tehran while making a side bet on dragging Trump into the fray and outsourcing the tougher nuclear targets to the United States.
The very worst outcome is the polar opposite of the optimistic case. In this bleak alternative, the Air Force either didn’t find, or couldn’t destroy, all of the key parts of the Iranian program; the Iranians then try to sprint across the finish line to a bomb. In the meantime, Tehran lashes out against U.S. targets in the region and closes the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian opposition fades in importance as angry Iranian citizens take their government’s part.
One dangerous possibility in this pessimistic scenario is that the Iranians do real damage to American assets or kill a number of U.S. servicepeople, and Trump, confused and enraged, tries to widen his war against a country more than twice the size of Iraq.
Perhaps the most likely outcome, however, is more mixed. The Iranian program may not be completely destroyed, but if the intelligence was accurate and the bombers hit their targets, Tehran’s nuclear clock has likely been set back years. (This in itself is a good thing; whether it is worth the risks Trump has taken is another question.) The Iranian people will likely rally around the flag and the regime, but the real question is whether that effect will last.
The Iranian regime will be wounded but will likely survive; the nuclear program will be delayed but will likely continue; the region will become more unstable but is unlikely to erupt into a full-blown war involving the United States.
But plenty of wild cards are in the deck.
First, as strategists and military planners always warn, the ‘enemy gets a vote.’ The Iranians may respond in ways the U.S. does not expect. The classic war-gaming mistake is to assume that your opponent will respond in ways that fit nicely with your own plans and capabilities. But the Iranians have had a long time to think about this eventuality; they may have schemes ready that the U.S. has not foreseen. (Why not spread around radiological debris, for example, and then blame the Americans for a near-disaster?) Trump has issued a warning to Iran not to react, but what might count as ‘reacting’?
Second, we cannot know the subsequent effects of an American attack. For now, other Middle Eastern regimes may be relieved to see Iran’s nuclear clock turned back. But if the Iranian regime survives and continues even a limited nuclear program, those same nations may sour on what they will see as an unsuccessful plan hatched in Jerusalem and carried out by Washington.
Diplomacy elsewhere will likely suffer. The Russians have been pounding Ukraine with even greater viciousness than usual all week and now may wave away the last of Trump’s feckless attempts to end the war. Other nations might see American planes flying over Iran and think that the North Koreans had the right idea all along: assemble a few crude nuclear weapons as fast as you can to deter further attempts to end your regime.
Finally, the chances for misperception and accidents are now higher than they were yesterday. In 1965, the United States widened the war in Southeast Asia after two purported attacks from North Vietnam; the Americans were not sure at the time whether both of these attacks had actually happened, and as it turns out, one of them probably had not. The Middle East, moreover, is full of opportunities for screwups and mistakes: If Trump continues action against Iran, he will need excellent intelligence and tight organization at the Pentagon.
And this is where the American strikes were really a gamble: They were undertaken by a White House national-security team staffed by unqualified appointees, some of whom—including the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense himself—Trump has reportedly frozen out of his inner circle. (Given that those positions are held by Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth, respectively, it is both terrifying and a relief to know that their influence may be limited.) The American defense and intelligence communities are excellent, but they can function for only so long without competent leadership.
Trump has had preternatural luck as president: He has survived scandals, major policy failures, and even impeachment, events that would have ended other administrations.The American planes dropped their payloads and returned home safely. So he might skate past this war, even if it will be hard to explain to the MAGA faithful who believed him, as they always do, when he told them that he was the peace candidate. But perhaps the biggest and most unpredictable gamble Trump took in bombing Iran was sending American forces into harm’s way in the Middle East with a team that was never supposed to be in charge of an actual war.” Tom Nichols, The Atlantic
Politics
Mahmoud Khalil with his family, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, at Newark airport. Todd Heisler/The New York Times
“Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia pro-Palestinian activist, returned to New York after months in detention. See video of him walking through Newark airport with his wife and child.
A top Senate official rejected an attempt by Republicans to slash federal food aid payments as part of their large policy bill.” [New York Times]
New York Mayor
“The Democratic primary in the New York City mayor’s race is Tuesday.
Bill Clinton will endorse Andrew Cuomo for mayor, the latest example of how establishment Democrats seem to favor Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani, his progressive rival.
Brad Lander, a senior city official who is also running for mayor, appeared at a closing campaign event alongside two women who have accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct.” [New York Times]
IN ONE CHART
Source: New York Times analysis of internal and public databases | Data is as of May 7.
“Trump froze funds for foreign aid on his first day in office. Elon Musk’s DOGE team then cut most staff members at the U.S. Agency for International Development and canceled nearly all of its programs. But the agency isn’t fully dead yet. Some programs were subsequently restored, like ones addressing acute disease and hunger, after months of pleas from advocates and politicians.
Aid workers say they have yet to see a realistic plan from the administration for how foreign aid will work. Read our investigation into what remains at U.S.A.I.D.” [New York Times]
SPORTS
“M.L.B.: After coming under pressure to take a stand against ICE raids, the L.A. Dodgers committed $1 million to aid immigrant families.
Olympics: The Senegal women’s national basketball team canceled a 10-day training camp after the U.S. rejected visas for five players and six staff members.” [New York Times]
TRANSITIONS
“Lives Lived: Nathan Silver was an architect whose elegiac 1967 book, “Lost New York,” documented many buildings that were demolished before the city passed a landmarks preservation law. Silver died at 89.” [New York Times]