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Donald Trump declared Saturday that joint American and Israeli military strikes against Iran had achieved their intended effect, and suggested the scale of destruction inflicted on Tehran could paradoxically open a path toward a negotiated settlement — a prospect he said now looked considerably more attainable than it had just twenty-four hours earlier.
Speaking by phone to CBS News, the president said Iran was “getting beat up badly” and framed that military pressure as leverage rather than an endpoint.
When pressed on whether a diplomatic resolution to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs remained possible, his answer was direct: “Much easier now than it was a day ago, obviously.”
The strikes, which Trump said were designed to degrade Tehran’s military capacity and eliminate what he characterised as a nuclear threat, were launched in coordination with Israel.
The president called it “a great day for this country, a great day for the world.” He also disclosed earlier Saturday that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been killed in the operation, and publicly urged Iranians to reclaim control of their country in the aftermath.
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CBS News, citing sources familiar with the operation, reported that roughly 40 Iranian officials were believed to have died in the strikes. Trump did not dispute the characterisation. Asked whether there were figures capable of leading Iran following Khamenei’s death, he said there were “some good candidates” but did not elaborate or name anyone.
Iran’s military response came swiftly. Tehran launched ballistic missiles toward Israel and carried out attacks against US-aligned targets elsewhere across the Middle East. Trump acknowledged the retaliation but said it fell short of what American planners had anticipated. “We thought it’d be double,” he said, while cautioning that the situation was still developing. US Central Command confirmed that no American personnel had been killed or wounded in the operation.
The president said he had spent much of the day in contact with US officials and foreign leaders, tracking Iran’s movements in real time.
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He declined to describe the exchange of strikes as a war, keeping his framing narrow — the United States, he said, was focused on neutralising threats, not on a broader conflict with the Iranian state.
On Capitol Hill, reactions divided along familiar lines. Republican leadership largely endorsed the operation. Democrats were more cautious, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pressing the administration to provide lawmakers with a substantive account of the intelligence and threat assessment that preceded the decision to strike.
He said Congress and the public were owed clarity on both the scope of the threat and the objectives of the mission.
Trump, asked whether he intended to bring Congress into decisions on Iran going forward, said he had always worked with the legislature and expected to continue doing so.
