By Suzanne Bowdey

While Democrats (and at least one Republican) will continue to snipe at Donald Trump over whether Saturday’s obliteration of Iran’s nuclear facilities warranted Congress’s approval, one thing that shouldn’t be debated is the overwhelming scale and success of the mission. After months of insisting that he would never let the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism develop a weapon that could wipe out innocent Americans or Israelis, Tehran now knows: this president means what he says. And while it’s been popular to doubt the sincerity of the president’s threats back home, let’s face it — there are no TACO Trump taunts tonight.

Far from chickening out in his high-stakes showdown with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump orchestrated a masterful head-fake of precision, coordination, and secrecy that has to rank among the most consequential military actions of the modern age. By the time the president had seeded the story that he was giving Iran “two more weeks” before a decision to strike, a group of seven B-2 bombers was already on their way across the Atlantic.

Turning the media’s disgust against him to his advantage, Trump knew the liberal outlets “couldn’t resist amplifying it,” a senior advisor told Axios. “He knew the Iranians might think he was bluffing. Well, everyone was wrong.”

Most people close to Operation Midnight Hammer point out that the initial groundwork for an attack of this magnitude “likely stretched back years.” For Trump’s top defense team, who’d suffered an embarrassing Signal leak during their mission to repay the Houthis, the element of surprise probably must have felt like some long-awaited redemption. This time, the first anyone heard of America’s bunker buster bombs annihilating the facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan was out of the president’s own mouth.

“An extraordinarily small group of officials inside the Trump administration knew about the planned strike,” Axios reports. “… Trump himself helped maintain the secrecy, using public statements to keep Washington, Tehran, and the rest of the world guessing about his true intentions.” By Friday night, when the military’s planes were already en route, “Trump appeared upbeat and relaxed at his golf club in New Jersey. ‘POTUS was having the time of his life,’ one person said. "None of us had any idea that a bunch of bombers were already in the air, ready to rain down hell.”

To those closest to him, it’s a deadly gamble to doubt the president’s sincerity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had a lively debate on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, pointed out that the Iranians “tried to play him along the way they’ve played every American president for the last 35 years. And the president told them, ‘If we don’t get a deal’ — which is what we wanted — ‘then I’ll have to handle it differently.’ And that’s what he did [Saturday] night. He handled it differently,” Rubio said. But, he insisted, “[T]hat was an Iranian choice. We didn’t make that choice. They did by playing games with Donald Trump. They made a huge mistake.”

Like his State Department counterpart, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to great lengths to remind everyone of the real objective. “It’s worth noting,” he stressed in his press conference Sunday morning, “the operation did not target Iranian troops and the Iranian people. For the entirety of his time in office, President Trump has consistently stated for over 10 years that Iran must not get a nuclear weapon— full stop.”

It was a distinction that Vice President J.D. Vance echoed during his own trip around the weekend media circuit. “We’re not at war with Iran, Jon,” he reiterated to ABC “This Week” host Jonathan Karl. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program. And I think the president took decisive action to destroy that program last night.”

The fact of the matter is, Rubio said, even the people blasting Trump know that this operation was necessary. “And a bunch of these countries, putting out statements condemning us — privately, they all agree with us — that this needed to be done,” the secretary wanted people to know. “They got to do what they got to do for their own public relations purposes, but the only people in the world that are unhappy about what happened in Iran last night is the regime.”

Of course, Democrats in the United States will also put on a predictable show — as many already are — calling for Trump’s impeachment. Others, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), complain that the president violated the War Powers Act, despite their abject silence when Barack Obama and Bill Clinton approved missions of a similar scope — or larger — in places like Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan.

“The calls for impeachment are absurd,” ranted law professor Jonathan Turley, “given the prior actions of presidents in using this very authority. Once again, some Democrats appear intent on applying a different set of rules for impeaching Trump than any of his predecessors. Trump can cite both history and case law in allowing presidents to take such actions.” And yet, he shook his head, “Members will once again express their shock and disgust at the use of the same authority that they once accepted from prior presidents.”

The knee-jerk reaction to try to oust Trump at every turn continues to roil even Democrats. Former Hillary Clinton staffer Dan Turrentine posted on X early Sunday morning, “… [I]t needs to be said by more Democrats: this was not an impeachable offense, and Trump did not need congressional approval for one precision attack under the circumstances, just as Obama did not when striking Bin Laden,” he argued. “Why can’t our Party just say it’s great we achieved the objective and destroyed Iran’s nuclear sites, God bless the soldiers who carried this out and made it home safely, God bless our country, military, allies, and we look forward to a full intel briefing[?]”

In the meantime, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) underscored the significance of the hour on Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “This moment has been coming for some time,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins before a single bomb had been dropped. “Iran has been in a weakened state domestically. I mean, they have a large number of the population who have been very disenchanted … with the leadership of the country. They want freedom,” he described. “They don’t want to live under the dictatorship of this evil regime. And it is evil.” He paused, “… If they were ever able to get nuclear capability, they would hit Israel and the United States.”

The speaker knew that whatever decision the president made would be carefully calculated. But the reality is, he continued, “He does not desire to be a wartime president. He does not want to be engaged in international conflicts unnecessarily. He wants peace, and he says that all the time. But as he also says in the same breath, ‘What are we to do? We can’t allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. They would use it against the United States.’”

As someone who’s spent a lot of time with Trump in historic moments, Johnson wanted to reassure Americans that “The president is doing what the commander in chief is supposed to do — and that is protect U.S. interests and protect U.S. personnel. We have 40,000 servicemen and women stationed in the region over there. So everything he’s done … has been necessary to protect those interests. And anyone who says otherwise is simply either not paying attention, doesn’t understand, or they’re trying to create some sort of conspiracy theory that doesn’t exist.”

While our nation and its military families prepare for what might happen next, the speaker — who’s own son is at the Naval Academy — observed that President Trump’s “head and his heart are in exactly the right place. And he understands the weight and the gravity of the decisions that he has had to make and will have to make in the days ahead. And it weighs on him,” he said. “You can see it on the countenance of his face. He wants to make the right decision for the right reason.”

Asked how seriously America should take Iran’s threats to retaliate against U.S. military bases, the speaker nodded solemnly before replying, “Look, I think this is a very important moment. And the president needs your prayers. I mean, this is biblical,” he appealed. “Pray for those in authority for times just such as this. And I hope that everyone will.”

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.