How Trump quietly made the historic decision to launch strikes in Iran
CNN
By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air.
By the time President Donald Trump was milling about his golf club in New Jersey on Friday evening, the planes were about to be in the air. To onlookers at the club, Trump showed little anxiety about his decision to authorize airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities that could have profound ramifications both on US national security and his own presidential legacy. The B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound bunker busters were preparing to take off at midnight from their base in Missouri, destined for Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Another set of planes was heading west, a deliberate attempt at misdirection as Trump demanded complete secrecy for his momentous decision. As Trump escorted around Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, to an event for new members being held in one of the clubhouse’s dining rooms, he was loose and — at least in public — in an easygoing mood, people who saw him said. “I hope he’s right about the AI,” Trump joked at one point, gesturing to his guest. Twenty-four hours later, Trump was in the basement Situation Room at the White House, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat as he watched the strikes he had approved days earlier, codenamed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” play out in real time on the facility’s wall of monitors.
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