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US strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says

Defense News published US strikes 3 Iranian nuclear sites, Trump says on June 22, 2025. The byline is Sam Mednick, Aamer Madhani, and David Rising of the Associated Press. The article says President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had struck three Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel's campaign. The day before, it says, he told reporters he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran. An American family should care because the public case that weekend was an air strike, paired with a denial of a ground war. A denial spoken on Friday is not a record of where every soldier was on Saturday.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. One Associated Press account, reprinted by Defense News, says the President told reporters he did not want ground forces in Iran, calling a ground war the last thing you want to do.

What the article says​

The page is datelined Tel Aviv. It says Trump, on Saturday, said the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran and thus joined Israel's effort against Iran's nuclear program. It says there was no immediate acknowledgment from the Iranian government. It says Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that attacks targeted Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz.

The article quotes a social-media post in which Trump said the attack on the three nuclear sites, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, was complete, that all planes were outside Iranian airspace, and that a full payload of bombs was dropped on Fordow. It says he said B-2 stealth bombers were used and did not specify the bombs. The article then explains, as background, that Israel had wanted a heavy American bunker-busting bomb only the United States flies, because Fordow is buried. Those lines are about aircraft and bombs. They are not a report of soldiers on the ground.

The ground-force line is from the day before the strikes.

"Trump told reporters Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran, saying it's "the last thing you want to do.""

Sam Mednick, Aamer Madhani, and David Rising, Associated Press, as published by Defense News on June 22, 2025. The article says this was Friday, and that he had indicated he would decide over two weeks. The same article says the strikes came sooner than that public timetable.

The article reports warnings from Iranian officials, which are the other side of the story. It says Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday that strikes on Iran would result in irreparable damage. It says Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region. It says Iran's foreign minister warned, before the U.S. attack, that American military involvement would be very dangerous for everyone. The article presents those as warnings about a wider war. It does not present them as a claim that U.S. ground troops had landed.

The article also says Trump had run on keeping the country out of costly foreign conflicts, and that some of his supporters, including Tucker Carlson, were arguing that further involvement would break that promise. That is the article's political context.

What other reporting and posts add​

The vice president said the same thing the next morning. On Sunday, 22 June 2025, Vice President JD Vance told NBC's Meet the Press, as NOTUS and Axios reported: "We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground." Axios wrote that the United States "doesn't plan to send ground troops into Iran." Fortune added that when Vance was asked if he could rule out ground troops eventually being deployed, he replied that the US had no interest in a protracted conflict, which is not the same as ruling it out. NOTUS, 22 June 2025; Fortune, 22 June 2025. (captures: twitter/t52__v617.md, twitter/t52__v621.md)

An Israeli angle from three days earlier. On 19 June 2025, an account relaying Axios wrote that, according to an unnamed senior US official, "Israelis are effectively encouraging the US to engage in a ground war with Iran if an air war doesn't immobilize Iranian nuclear sites," and that the Israelis said they might "do it with humans" if bombs could not reach deep enough into the Fordow mountain. The Axios story itself was not linked or opened, so treat this as a lead, not a confirmed quote. @MonitorX99800, 19 June 2025. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)

Not every Israeli voice wanted Americans in. An Israeli poster living on the northern border wrote that week: "I refuse to ask American sons and daughters, who do not share the same sentiment as me to step in for something we are capable of doing ourselves." That is a private citizen, not the government, but it shows the Israeli public was not of one mind. @EasternVoices, 19 June 2025. (capture: twitter/t13__v146.md)

What it shows​

This is where the ground question began: the night US bombers struck Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan in June 2025, with a president calling ground forces the last thing he wanted. Days earlier the White House had said US forces were holding a defensive posture. The same week, Axios reported a senior US official saying Israelis were "effectively encouraging the US to engage in a ground war with Iran if an air war doesn't immobilize Iranian nuclear sites." See No Boots on the Ground and Air War Is Not Enough.

Check it yourself​

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Esmail Baghaei is alive. Tucker Carlson is alive.

This is the start of the story for many readers. On the night of 21 to 22 June 2025, American B-2 bombers struck three Iranian nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, joining an Israeli air campaign that had begun on 13 June. The American raid was named Operation Midnight Hammer; the Israeli-Iranian fighting became known as the "12-Day War." It was the first direct US attack on Iran. Eight months later, on 28 February 2026, a much larger US-Israeli war began. The promise made that June weekend, no ground troops, is the one families have been measuring every later statement against.

Research captures: twitter/t52__v617.md, twitter/t52__v621.md, twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t13__v146.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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