WASHINGTON—Hours after the United States launched successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump addressed the nation and issued a stern warning to Iran: make peace, or face future attacks.

Trump delivered his address at 10:00 p.m. Saturday evening, flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, only a few hours after he announced on Truth Social that the United States had “completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan.”

President Trump’s full address to the nation tonight:pic.twitter.com/OErRxYeIc3

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 22, 2025

“All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” Trump shared in the post, around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this.”

Speaking Saturday evening, Trump reminded the world that for 40 years, Iran has called for death to America and death to Israel. He described the strikes on the Iranian nuclear facilities as “a spectacular military success,” noting that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”

“They’ve been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs,” he said. “That was their specialty.”

President Trump: “This cannot continue. There will be either peace or tragedy for Iran—far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.” pic.twitter.com/kJ7QU5pJxP

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) June 22, 2025

The president congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, “We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before.” He also thanked the Israeli military and the “great American patriots” who conducted the strikes on Saturday.

“With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” the president vowed. “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, perhaps the most lethal, but if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill.”

Hegseth will hold a press conference at the Pentagon at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, Trump said, before concluding: “I want to thank everybody and in particular, God. I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military, protect them.”

“God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel and God bless America,” he said.

President Trump: “I want to thank everybody and in particular, God. I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military, protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel and God bless America.” pic.twitter.com/7FgqJeCHgD

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) June 22, 2025

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump would decide whether to strike Iran “within the next two weeks.”

Trump has backed Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, which have taken out some of the radical Islamic regime’s nuclear facilities and military leaders, while urging the Ayatollah to come to the negotiating table. Before Saturday, Trump had not ruled out direct military action against Iran, going so far as saying that the United States knows “exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.”

Leavitt addressed the speculation surrounding the president’s thinking on conflict, reading a statement from Trump in which the president stated: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

Iran escalated the conflict on Thursday with a direct airstrike on an Israeli hospital, a move that Israel Health Minister Uriel Buso called an “act of terrorism and a crossing of a red line.”

Zach Jewell contributed to this report. 

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly drafter a short list of potential successors as a contingency in case Israel targets him next.

The Iranian supreme leader has spent much of the last couple of weeks in hiding as Israeli forces systematically targeted nuclear research facilities, nuclear scientists, and military leaders — and as The New York Times reported on Saturday, those targeted strikes have Khamenei worried that he could be next on the list.

According to the report, Khamenei has resorted to speaking through a “trusted aid” and refuses to use electronic communications in order to better obscure his location. The NYTimes quoted several anonymous officials as confirming that the ayatollah had also chosen replacements for a number of his military leaders.

Khamenei, the officials said, is taking steps to avoid being assassinated — but they also said that if an attempt were to succeed, he would view himself as a martyr. “Given the possibility, the ayatollah has made the unusual decision to instruct his nation’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the supreme leader, to choose his successor swiftly from the three names he has provided,” the report stated.

Khamenei’s short list circumvents the typical process for selecting a successor — during which clerics also submit names for consideration — but as Johns Hopkins University professor and Iran expert Vali Nasr explained, “The top priority is the preservation of the state. It is all calculative and pragmatic.”

The surprising move, according to the quoted officials, is that Khamenei did not put his son Mojtaba on the list despite most believing that he was a frontrunner for the position. Instead, the list is reportedly comprised of the names of three senior clerics.

The news came just hours before President Donald Trump announced that the American military had successfully executed strikes on three major nuclear targets in Iran.

The President will make an Address to the Nation at 10:00PM ET. Tune in! pic.twitter.com/WT0AeS3ghA

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 22, 2025