President Donald Trump elaborated on his rationale for attacking Iran in a new video statement on Sunday evening after the death of three American service members in Kuwait, underscoring the broader risks of the ongoing U.S. and Israeli military campaign in the Middle East.
Trump said the offensive had hit “hundreds of targets” in Iran, including Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities, air defense systems, an Iranian naval building and had sunk nine ships.
“Combat operations continue at this time,” Trump announced in a six-minute video posted to Truth Social “They will continue until all of our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives.”
The president lamented the death of three U.S. service members, the first Americans to die in the conflict, explaining there “likely will be more.”
Five other U.S. service members were seriously wounded, and several others sustained minor injuries, U.S. Central Command announced on Sunday morning. The identities of the dead and wounded have not yet been made public.
Trump expanded on his reasoning for the military operation that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and triggered retaliatory strikes by Iran against U.S. military bases in the region. Israeli media reported Sunday that Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group, fired projectiles from Lebanon into northern Israel, marking the paramilitary group’s first military action against Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire agreement.
The Israeli Air Force said in a statement that the attack was intercepted and no injuries were reported.
In his speech, Trump filled in the outlines of a rationale for the offensive based on Iranian threats to future generations instead of the current one. He did not put a timeline on military operations, either, though he told the New York Times in an interview the operation would be sustained from “four to five weeks.”
Trump expanded in his rationale for the U.S. offensive based on Iranian threats to future generations instead of the current one. He did not put a timeline on the military action, either.
“America will avenge their deaths and deal the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization,” Trump said.
He went on to argue that the offensive was necessary because of the Iranian desire to develop nuclear weapons and long-range nuclear missiles, although it was unclear whether he meant missiles that could ultimately reach the U.S. There is no indication that Iran has either capability right now.
“An Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American,” Trump said. “We cannot allow a nation that raises terrorist armies to possess such weapons…We’re not gonna let that happen to us. We’re not gonna allow it happen to others.”
Trump suggested it was America’s responsibility to secure the world as a democracy with a robust military that must be used “for good.”
“We’re undertaking this massive operation not merely to ensure security for our own time and place but for our children and their children…this is the duty and the burden of a free people,” he argued.
He again called for the Iranian people, many of whom have been brutalized by their government after a recent uprising against it, to “seize this moment” and take things into their own hands.
“America is with you. I made that promise to you and I fulfilled that promise,” he said. “The rest will be up to you. But we’ll be there to help.”
It was the second public statement from Trump following the launch of military operations in Iran on Saturday morning. The president has been laying low at his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, taking interviews from journalists. But the video statements posted to Truth Social are his only public comments.
Hill Democrats argue conflict is unjustified
Capitol Hill Democrats — and a few Republicans — have questioned whether there is an “imminent” threat to America from Iran and are seeking to pass legislation curtailing Trump’s authority to wage war. So far, that seems like an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Congress.
On a conference call Sunday evening, top House Democrats — including the ranking members on the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Armed Services Committees — urged their members to vote for the war powers resolution when it comes to the floor, according to two House Democrats on the call.
They argued Congress needed to assert its authority, despite the merits of Khamenei’s death.
One source told MS NOW that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pushed for unanimous Democratic support of a war powers resolution, suggesting that would send a powerful message to the president.
The timing of a vote remains fluid. At least three Democrats suggested they’d vote against the resolution, including Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Greg Landsman, D-Ohio.
And some lawmakers were questioning the administration’s claim following the attacks that Iran possibly planned to preemptively strike the U.S., a statement senior administration officials made on a call with reporters Saturday.
Two U.S. officials told MS NOW that congressional lawmakers and staff on key committees were never told that there was an imminent threat from Iran when briefed beforehand. Iran wasn’t going to attack first, one of the U.S. officials told MS NOW
Rep. Eric Swawell, D-Calif., told MS NOW’s Alex Witt on Sunday afternoon that the president’s military operation in Iran was illegal, echoing what many lawmakers have said in citing that under the U.S. Constitution only Congress can declare war.
“This is a values argument. We don’t just lob missiles into other countries when we are not provoked, attacked and have no plan for what comes next,” he said.
“We have been shown zero evidence that anything changed in Iran from last year when the president did not come to Congress and took a strike on Iran,” Swalwell said.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., told MS NOW’s Chris Jansing on Sunday evening that Trump’s comments about the deaths of the three U.S. service members were “just unbelievably offensive and completely unacceptable,” and echoed Swalwell’s concerns about the president’s “knee-jerk decision.”
“You’re cavalierly talking about people, U.S. service members, getting killed without any clear plan on what it is you’re trying to accomplish, much less how you plan to accomplish it,” Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, said.
In a private conference call with GOP House members on Sunday afternoon, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., urged his caucus to vote against the effort to curb Trump in Iran, telling the members: “We need to stand with the president.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the U.S. objective in Iran is to “completely dismantle Iran’s short-range ballistic missiles and their launchers” and claimed that Iran was working to rebuild its nuclear program.
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Erum Salam is breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian and is a graduate of Texas A&M University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her on X, Bluesky and Instagram.
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Adam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.
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