When Donald Trump said Thursday that he had granted himself two weeks to decide whether or not to bomb Iran, his contemptors said that it was only a way of postponing a difficult decision.
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The next evening, the American president left the White House for a fundraising dinner in his New Jersey golf course, arousing sighs of relief in many capitals.
In reality, the republican billionaire was about to decide.
A few hours after arriving at the national Trump Golf Club Bedminster, the first B-2 bombers took off from their base in the United States.
On Saturday, when the planes were still in flight, Donald Trump chose to attack three Iranian nuclear sites, the first direct military attack in the United States against Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“The president gave the final order to the Minister of Defense on Saturday,” an anonymity-based manager of the White House told AFP.
“In the week preceding the strikes, the president continued on the path of diplomacy, mainly via the special emissary (Steve) Witkoff, in parallel with the preparations for the Pentagon.”
The Trump administration seems to have deliberately diverted attention with this period of “two weeks” and the fact that several B-2 served as a lure leaving for the opposite management.
Maybe, maybe not
Donald Trump, author of a book entitled “The Art of the Deal”, remained voluntarily ambiguous all week.
He first returned earlier than expected from the G7 summit to speak with his national security team.
He then launched a lined with bellicose messages on social networks for the Iranian supreme guide Ali Khamenei.
“I may do it, or maybe not,” he replied on Wednesday as he was asked if he was going to hit Iran.
Then his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt read a presidential statement on Thursday before the press. Referring to a “substantial” possibility of negotiations with Iran, the president said that he would make his decision “in the next two weeks”.
Donald Trump’s criticisms argued that the president used to set limits for 15 days on subjects ranging from Ukraine to health and to take no account of it.
But in private, according to American officials, the Republican was increasingly determined.
He was against Israeli strikes in Iran until the Israelis started on the attack on June 13. Admiring in the results, he spoke every day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The air superiority acquired by Israel offered Donald Trump the unique opportunity to hit an Iranian nuclear program which he denounced since his first mandate.
From talkative to secret
The president was “informed daily of the efforts of the Israelis and the operation itself while he decided to go ahead or not,” said the head of the White House.
The commander-in-chief of the United States held meetings every day with the National Security Council when he was thinking about the possible options.
To divert the attention of his movement “Make America Great Again” (“return his greatness to America”), he met according to the media his former collaborator Steve Bannon, opposed to a new “eternal war” in the Middle East.
Faced with the public, Donald Trump did everything to keep the secret.
Normally very talkative, he didn’t say anything to journalists by returning to the White House on Saturday evening.
Forty minutes later, the first bomber dropped his bombs at 6:40 p.m. in Washington on Saturday, 2:40 am in Iran on Sunday. The last missile was fired at 7:05 p.m. by a submarine.
At 7:50 p.m., the president announced a “very successful” operation on his Truth Social network.
“It was a highly confidential mission of which very few people in Washington knew the calendar or nature,” said the joint chief of staff, General Dan Caine on Sunday.
But difficult decisions are far from finished for Donald Trump.
How will he react to Iran’s reprisals on Monday? If the American strikes have not completely destroyed the Iranian nuclear sites as it has claimed, will he launch others? And above all, will it go further than the strikes on Iranian nuclear power plants?
“If the current Iranian regime is not able to make its greatness to Iran, why would there not be a change of diet?” he asked on Sunday ”.
