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For weeks he assembled an armada of carriers and destroyers in the waters of the Middle East, bolstered by squadrons of F-35 and F-22 jets dispatched to allied bases around the region. It was the largest U.S. buildup since the 2003 Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Trump’s goal was to pressure Iran’s rulers to do what they have resisted for decades: give up their nuclear and long-range missile programs and stop supporting its armed proxies. He said he preferred a diplomatic solution with Tehran, but the buildup continued.
Yet even as his envoys to the Iran talks, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, were preparing to fly to Geneva to meet their Iranian counterparts for more discussions, the calculus was shifting toward conflict.
This story is based on interviews and briefings with several U.S. officials and people familiar with how events of the past week unfolded, all of whom asked not to be identified discussing events that weren’t public.
At the State of the Union on Tuesday, Trump warned that Iranian officials were “again pursuing their sinister ambitions” to reconstitute their nuclear program after devastating attacks by the U.S. and Israel last year.
“They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,'” the president said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met senior congressional leaders that evening to brief them on talks.
Time was running out but, behind the scenes, there was still a debate underway. U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessments suggested Iran’s nuclear progress remained constrained, while Israeli intelligence painted a far more urgent picture. Some U.S. officials quietly warned Trump’s top envoys not to lean too heavily on the Israeli conclusions.
By Thursday afternoon, the Kushner-Witkoff talks in Geneva had failed to produce a breakthrough. Yet there was just enough ambiguity that they agreed to return later in the day, after shuttling across town for unrelated discussions with Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Iranian officials said they believed the second round of talks that day showed progress. But by the end of the evening, Kushner and Witkoff felt every avenue had been exhausted. In their view, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s worldview left little room for coexistence with Trump’s vision for the Middle East.
After 16 hours in Geneva, the Americans adhered to their self-imposed deadline and flew back to Washington.
While there were plans announced for more talks next week, Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi — the mediator in the Geneva talks — was alarmed, convinced conflict was imminent. On Friday morning, he flew directly from Geneva to Washington and headed straight to a meeting with Vice President JD Vance, a longtime skeptic of foreign intervention who might still have the president’s ear on Iran.
‘Not happy’
The move infuriated some hawkish Trump advisers, with some describing the outreach as bordering on disloyalty — an external power attempting to split the president’s inner circle at a crucial moment.
That same day at the White House, Trump was preparing to fly to Texas to indulge in some domestic politics, days before the state holds a critical primary election. But his mood on Iran was souring.
Officials briefing him said that while a short-term deal with Iran seemed within reach, it wouldn’t address core issues like Tehran’s missile program. At a Texas rally that day, Trump said he was “not happy” with the state of the negotiations.
Afterward, there was some levity. At a Whataburger outlet in Corpus Christi filled with American flags and adoring fans, he declared “Hamburgers for all!” and grabbed a to-go bag with the number 47 — a nod to his place in the presidential pantheon.
In retrospect, the jocularity masked a grim reality: there would be no more talks. Trump left the Lone Star state and flew to Florida to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Vance gathered with Cabinet members in Washington. That night, Rubio notified senior U.S. lawmakers that military action against Iran was likely.
In a video recorded without reporters present and released in the middle of the night U.S. time, Trump announced the attack and urged the Iranian people to overthrow their governing regime, which he accused of fomenting “mass terror.”
“No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight,” he said in the video. “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny.”
The war had begun.
Explosions ripped across Iran. In response to hundreds of joint U.S. and Israeli strikes, Tehran unleashed volleys of missiles at Israel and U.S. targets across the region.
Air-defense systems engaged incoming projectiles over Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi, as residents reported blasts and falling debris. In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, a U.S.-linked base came under fire. In Abu Dhabi, at least one person was killed by debris from an interception.
As with the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the early stages have proved to be a rout — with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing the death of Khamenei, just the second supreme leader to rule Iran since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979. Iran later confirmed his death.
The CIA tracked and monitored Khamenei for months and the U.S. adjusted the timing of the strike based on those findings, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Other top leaders, including the defense minister and head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, were also reported killed.
Yet as the U.S. learned painfully in its interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, the early hours rarely define a conflict.
Trump is relying, for now at least, on air power, attempting to rally the citizens of a nation that doesn’t have any organized opposition to rise up and do the on-the-ground work he’s avoiding.
In a social media post, Trump vowed to continue “heavy and pinpoint bombing” uninterrupted, “throughout the week or, as long as necessary.” But he also called on Iranians to seize the opportunity he said he was giving them.
For Trump, it marks his second major military action against an adversary since the start of the year. Emboldened by his successful and quick ousting of Venezuela’s leader, Trump has again ripped up the MAGA playbook and decided to launch a war of choice. A leader who rose to prominence a decade ago denouncing America’s “forever wars” has taken his biggest risk yet, with consequences that could play out for years to come.
But the president doesn’t appear worried. Back at his Florida resort, with Republicans rallying to his side, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would be sticking to his previously made plans for the weekend.
“President Trump still intends to stop by the fundraiser being held at Mar-a-Lago this evening for the Republican Party, which is more important than ever,” she said.
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(With assistance from Courtney McBride, Catherine Lucey, Josh Wingrove, Kate Sullivan, Natalia Drozdiak, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Romy Varghese.)
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