President Trump declared on Tuesday that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” amid mounting evidence that the United States was considering joining Israel’s bombing campaign against the country.
Mr. Trump made his statements on his social media site while preparing to meet with his national security team, hours after he cut short his attendance at the Group of 7 summit in Alberta, Canada, saying he needed to return to Washington to deal with the situation in the Middle East. His immediate decision is whether to deploy America’s largest conventional weapon — the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator — to attack Iran’s deepest nuclear enrichment site.
While Mr. Trump suggested that the United States had control of Iran’s skies, the only visible combatant has been Israel, which has been using American-made fighter jets. Israeli officials have said that they have been able to destroy much of Iran’s air defenses.
In one of his messages Tuesday, Mr. Trump threatened Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying “we know exactly where” he is. But he added that “we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least for now.” Killing foreign leaders is violates executive orders, signed by a series of presidents and still in effect, that says “no person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” Mr. Trump added, “Our patience is growing thin.”
In his own social media post, Vice President JD Vance also hinted that the United States could step up its engagement to directly enter the offensive action. Mr. Vance said that Iran has no need for nuclear fuel enriched above the level needed for commercial power. Mr. Trump, he wrote, “has shown remarkable restraint,” but “may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment.”
“That decision ultimately belongs to to the president,” Mr. Vance wrote.
The vice president acknowledged the sentiments of some in the Republican Party who have called for staying out of conflicts in the Middle East, writing “of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy,” a period of time that encompasses Mr. Trump’s first term and the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations. But, he added, “I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue.”
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump will ultimately decide that the United States should join Israel’s efforts, with American offensive capability. On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said only that American forces were maintaining a “defensive posture.”
On his flight back to Washington from Canada, Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was not in the mood to continue negotiations with Iran, which were scheduled for last Sunday before Israel began mounting its attacks.
Mr. Trump said that he was seeking a result that was “better than a cease-fire” between Israel and Iran. Asked what would qualify, he said “an end, a real end, not a cease-fire, a real end.”
David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges.
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