The Americans want the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites to be a ‘one-and-done’
The Pentagon briefing was big on what happened but short on detail of what happens next.
Neither defence secretary Pete Hegseth nor General Dan “Raisin” Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, can answer that.
Mr Hegseth called the bombing an “incredible and overwhelming success” with “focused and clear” instructions from President Trump.
The focus now is on what follows and that’s not so clear.
The briefing laid out the details of the military deception plan behind Operation Midnight Hammer.
B-2 stealth aircraft were flown west towards the Pacific on Saturday as a decoy, while the B-2s with bunker-busting bombs on board flew east towards Iran.
Israel-Iran live: World continues to react to US attack on nuclear facilities
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What is Operation ‘Midnight Hammer’?
Mr Hegseth called it a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and came down, in the end, to “precision, misdirection and operational security”.
Gen Caine, Mr Trump’s top military man, offered a measured assessment. While Mr Trump had spoken of Iran’s nuclear sites being “obliterated”, Gen Caine revised that downwards when he spoke of “extremely severe damage”.
Full battle damage assessment will reveal the complete picture – only then can the mission’s success be measured in full, mindful that Iran had shifted at least some of its enriched uranium in the days before the strike.
On the politics of it, Mr Hegseth said this wasn’t about regime change in Iran. It might offer precious little reassurance to Tehran, particularly as he also said part of the operation was to defend Israel and the ongoing defence of Israel.
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What next after US-Iran strikes?
If the US is tethered to Israel’s interests to the extent of an unprecedented attack on Iran, where does its influence end?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared almost giddy in response to the US attack. He is a PM strengthened by Mr Trump’s spectacular response to his rhetoric around Iran.
Suspicions weren’t softened around Netanyahu’s influence over Mr Trump when Mr Hegseth was asked about the basis for the attack. He has long lobbied the US president on Iran being close to building a nuclear bomb, contrary to American intelligence which indicates otherwise.
Mr Hegseth was asked what was the new intelligence, was it American or from other countries? He avoided a direct answer, saying only that Mr Trump had looked at all the intelligence information and concluded Iran was a threat.
There were a number of questions about what comes next, with an assortment of non-answers in response from Mr Hegseth.
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Starmer reacts to US strikes on Iran
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A consistent line was that the US wanted Iran to negotiate peace, coupled with the threat of further aggression if it doesn’t.
The US defence secretary said Washington was in touch with Tehran privately and publicly, giving it every opportunity to come to the table, every opportunity for peace.
He made the point that America hadn’t targeted Iranian troops or civilians – clearly, a measure by the US to limit response and leave open a door.
The Americans want this attack to have been a “one-and-done”.
The scenario it’s left with, however, is an Iran talking of a diplomatic door closed and sending its foreign minister travelling to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin.
Iran is wounded, no doubt. Combined attacks have left it degraded and, without a network of support in the Middle East, its ability to strike back is limited. For now, if not necessarily forever.
Donald Trump clearly enjoyed the sugar rush of military success but he will be wary of the come-down and all of its uncertainties.
In circumstances with world implications, he won’t be alone.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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