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Trump Announces Major Combat Operations in Iran, Feb. 28, 2026

February 28, 2026 · The White House · 0:08:07

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

“A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran,” President Donald Trump announced on February 28, 2026, in a recorded address opening the campaign later named Operation Epic Fury. The objective, he said, was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

He laid out the case as he stated it: 47 years of the regime chanting “death to America,” from the 1979 embassy takeover and its 444 days of hostages, through the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing that killed 241 American personnel, the 2000 USS Cole attack, Iranian forces killing and maiming hundreds of American service members in Iraq, and Iran’s proxy Hamas carrying out the October 7 attacks on Israel. Iran, he said, is “the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,” had rejected every opportunity to renounce its nuclear ambitions after Operation Midnight Hammer obliterated its program the previous June, and was rebuilding that program while developing long-range missiles that could soon reach the American homeland.

The objectives he announced: “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground… We are going to annihilate their navy… and we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.” He warned plainly that American casualties were possible — “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost” — offered members of the Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and the police “complete immunity” if they laid down their weapons or “certain death” if they did not, and told the Iranian people “the hour of your freedom is at hand”: stay sheltered while the bombs fell, then “take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

Why it matters

This address is the founding document of the Iran campaign in this chronicle — the objectives, the historical case, and the immunity offer, all in the President’s own words on the day the strikes began, against which every later tally and briefing is measured. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

The launch itself, and the objectives as stated by the President — missiles and missile industry destroyed, navy annihilated, proxies neutralized, and no Iranian nuclear weapon — are recorded here as candidate items for the weekly scoreboard. The scoreboard entry itself remains review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Donald J. Trump on the United States Military Major Combat Operations in Iran,” The White House, February 28, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President in the address.