Following through on his public statements and other signs of impending action, President Trump announced the initiation of major combat operations against the Iranian regime overnight. He made the announcement in a video posted to his Truth Social account (below). Text of the president’s remarks is posted here.
The Pentagon has denominated the action as “Operation Epic Fury” and Israel has named it “Roaring Lion” — this is an operation coordinated with Israel. From reports posted on X, I take it that Israel is targeting the regime’s political and military leadership while the United States is targeting military sites. The Iranian regime has responded with missile attacks on Israel, on American bases in the Gulf, and other other objects of its affection.
The president addressed his remarks in part to the people of Iran. “The hour of your freedom is at hand,” the president said in his statement. “This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. . . . This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”
President Trump recited the history of the Iranian regimes attacks on the United States over the past 47 years:
Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days. In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel. In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole. Many died. Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq. The regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands. It’s been mass terror, and we’re not going to put up with it any longer.
He omitted any mention of the regime’s efforts to assassinate him. The debt we owe the regime is nevertheless large and overdue.
The recent negotiations to arrive at an arrangement terminating the regime’s nuclear program have come to this predictable end. President Trump declined to continue the pretextual haggling with fraudulent rug merchants for another Persian rug. The president did not go into detail regarding the regime’s efforts to reconstitute its missile forces or nuclear program. Referring to last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer, however, the president stated:
After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried. They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again, they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know what was happening. They just wanted to practice evil, but Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades. They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore.
There is more to be said, but at the moment it may be best to leave it with prayers for the safety of the armed forces undertaking this joint operation and for their success. Mark Penn speaks for me:
The time is now…The actions of President Trump are a heroic turn of events in which the regime that had as its ambition to conquer the region will face destruction and not be allowed to continue to suppress its own people while threatening the world.
While Obama and Biden enabled Iran, Trump drew a red line and meant it.
This is a just cause and we must all support our military in this effort that has been clearly planned and thought out as never before. May they be successful in making this a more peaceful and better world.
The time is now
Iran has terrorized the world for nearly 50 years with its demonization of the west and the creation of a terror state that long ago lost the support of its own people. They gunned down tens of thousands of their own people believing they could do it and nothing…
— Mark Penn (@Mark_Penn) February 28, 2026
