On June 21, Trump took the momentous step of bombing three nuclear sites in Iran with “bunker-busting” Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOP) and Tomahawk missiles. This was the largest attack by the US on Iran in modern history.
Two days later, after Iran retaliated with a purposefully harmless missile strike on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Trump suddenly announced an end to the hostilities on Truth Social: “CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!” for ending what he called “THE 12 DAY WAR.”
Meanwhile, Israel carried out another missile barrage on Iran. The immediate violation of the fragile agreement provoked an angry response from Trump in front of the press cameras:
When I say, “you have 12 hours,” you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them … We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.
Israeli officials have since said they will “respect” the ceasefire. How long the pause can endure remains to be seen. What is clear is that the imperialist aggression from the US and Israel did nothing to bring peace, prosperity, and stability to the region.
Empty claims of “victory”
On the night of Trump’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he held a three-minute press conference, stating that the objective of the attack was to put “a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.” He went on to claim that the strikes were a “spectacular success” and that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated,” adding that “we’ve gone a long way toward erasing this horrible threat to Israel.”
In every statement from US officials since Saturday, none offered any evidence whatsoever that the nuclear facilities were, in fact, “obliterated.” JD Vance, when pressed repeatedly on NBC as to whether the strikes had actually achieved their objective, merely said, “We set back the Iranian nuclear program substantially.”
Today, US officials said that a preliminary classified report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency indicates that the MOP bombs merely collapsed the entrances of two of the facilities, but failed to destroy the underground buildings. The report also said that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had been relocated to an unknown location before the attack. In other words, the damage was minimal, and the nuclear capabilities were set back by only a few months at most.
The facilities struck were civilian infrastructure in compliance with international nonproliferation treaties. But even if they were damaged, the US-Israeli war did nothing to set back Iranian military capabilities in general. The morning after the strikes, Iran continued to rain missiles on Israel just as it had done the day before.
Although Israeli officials clamped down on media outlets in an attempt to censor footage of the damage caused by Iranian missiles, it’s evident that Israeli air interceptors were overwhelmed by the constant barrage, raising concerns that the Israeli defensive missile stockpile would not last long. On the day before the US strikes, NBC News reported that Israeli air defenses were malfunctioning, and that the effectiveness of the “Iron Dome” system had fallen from 90% to just 65%. In other words, Israel was being hammered like never before.
What the imperialists actually “achieved”
As the ceasefire came into effect, the streets of Tehran were filled with mass celebratory demonstrations with defiant signs that read, “We will stand until the end” and “Down with America.”
Meanwhile, the US and Israel also claimed a “historic victory” in the same boastful language they have used since the start of their unprovoked attack on Iran. Netanyahu claimed that “all of the war’s goals” had been achieved.
But behind all of this belligerent bluster, it is clear that the “12 day war” achieved precisely none of the goals of the US-Israeli imperialists.
Did they achieve successful shock-and-awe decapitation strikes to spark a popular uprising against the mullahs? Did they get their desired regime change in Iran? Did they end Iran’s nuclear enrichment program? Did they prove the invulnerability of the Iron Dome? Did they awe the world with the unstoppable power of MOP bombs? Did they tamp down inflation by ensuring the stability of world energy flows? Did they inspire confidence in the trustworthiness of the US when it comes to negotiations and deal-making? Did they force the Iranians to beg for a ceasefire? Did they prove that Israeli imperialism is the top dog in the region? They achieved none of this.
So what did Trump and Netanyahu’s war achieve?
It divided the MAGA base by betraying the “no more forever wars” promise. It exposed US imperialism’s accelerating decline through its inconsistency, irrationality, and diminished bullying power. It revealed the fact that either Trump has been a closet “neocon” all along; or that he’s a weakling unable to stand up to the Ziocon “deep state.” It further depleted already low inventories of expensive and no-longer state-of-the-art weapons systems. It wrecked the credibility of even more institutions upholding the liberal world order, like the IAEA. It further revealed the criminal nature and at the same time extreme vulnerability of the Zionist regime in Israel. It helped heal the rift between Shia and Sunni, which was consciously fomented by imperialism to divide and conquer the peoples of the region. And it pushed Iran, China, and Russia even closer together than before.
Let’s be clear: the US-Israeli attack was a blatant attempt at regime change, intended to cut across the growing economic and military ties between China, Russia, Iran, and the rest of the BRICS countries. The tectonic plates of world imperialist power have shifted dramatically in recent years, and this was a desperate “hail Mary” effort to slow down US imperialism’s inevitable fall from the dominant position it has held since the end of World War II. But it has failed in every respect.
False pretexts and war propaganda
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has engaged in the same sickening double-speak as every previous administration, calling Iran “the bully of the Middle East” and calling for the Iranians to make peace, even as Israel continued to lob US-made missiles into the country. This is revolting hypocrisy coming from the single most vicious bully in history. US imperialism is responsible for more death and destruction than any previous ruling class could have dreamed of inflicting on humanity.
The playbook Trump now shares with the Democrats is not limited to mimicking the language of war propaganda used by Genocide Joe for the last four years. The strike package of B-2 bombers that carried out “Operation Midnight Hammer” was planned, coordinated, and rehearsed at least a year ago in a joint exercise between the US and Israeli militaries, according to ABC News. For all of Trump’s posturing as an opponent of the “neocon” warhawks, he has shown in practice how little daylight exists between the imperialist policies of both parties.
Trump’s self-congratulatory statements of “victory” are reminiscent of George W Bush’s notorious “mission accomplished” speech, delivered from an aircraft carrier in 2003 shortly after the US invasion of Iraq. To this day, some 2,500 US troops remain in the war-devastated country. That speech would become a bitter symbol of the official lies and deception used by the US government to justify its crimes.
Similarly, Trump’s pretext for the strikes was a blatant lie on the same level of the so-called “weapons of mass destruction” threat Bush used to justify the Iraq invasion. The claim that Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear weapon—which Netanyahu and the Western imperialists have been alleging for decades—is completely at odds with the findings of Trump’s own officials.
Just three months ago, his hand-picked Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified to Congress that US intelligence officials agreed there was no sign of such a threat: “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear programs he suspended in 2003.”
When Trump was confronted with this finding on Friday, June 20, he simply stated, “she’s wrong.” On the day before the attack, Gabbard shamefully walked back her comments under pressure from Trump, posting on X:
“America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”
If any actual new information had come to light, the administration would have been using it to justify its attack. Instead, every official merely made vague references to “the President’s judgment” on the imminent threat posed by Iran.
“Obliterating” illusions in the MAGA base
The chaotic and contradictory messaging from the administration over the course of this war are indicative of dysfunction and short-sighted, empirical decision making at each turn.
In the flurry of press conferences and interviews that followed the US strikes, officials from Trump’s cabinet were at pains to emphasize the limited nature of the attack, assuring the public that the objective was completed, that it was not the start of a long war, and calling on the Iranians to peacefully negotiate. Trump may have desired a “one and done” aggressive strike operation, but with his belligerent provocations about regime change, he was gambling with a broader war that could have drawn the US fully in—and may yet do so.
When Israel first launched its attack on Iran, the Trump administration distanced itself, with State Secretary Marco Rubio claiming that the US had nothing to do with it, while calling on the Iranians not to target any US bases or personnel in the region. Shortly after, Trump took to Truth Social, praising the attack as “excellent,” and issuing a string of belligerent statements threatening to kill the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
On the day after the attack, Trump continued his provocative statements on social media, openly referencing regime change, despite assurances from officials like Vance and Hegseth that the US has no such goals. As he wrote on Truth Social, “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???”
By directly joining the unprovoked war on Iran, the president who campaigned against “forever wars” has just shown the world that he is every bit the “deep-state” controlled warmonger that Biden was. This has shaken his MAGA coalition, beginning with all those who thought they were voting for a fighting alternative to the neocon establishment.
JD Vance, who also styled himself for years as an opponent of US involvement in faraway conflicts, has also been making the media rounds in an attempt at damage control. “We are not at war with Iran … we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he claimed absurdly on Meet the Press:
“I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East. I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives.”
This crude argument is unlikely to persuade the millions of war-weary workers who have endured decades of lies from one Washington warmonger after another, who sent US soldiers to kill and die on false pretexts for the profits of American bankers, oil companies, and defense contractors. The anti-war sentiment that exists in the US today is widespread and deeply rooted, and it was one of the factors that Trump successfully tapped into over the past decade.
Millions of his supporters come from veteran households—people who feel personally used and betrayed by both ruling parties, from the GOP of the GW Bush era, to the Democrat warmongers Clinton, Obama, and Biden. A significant section of working-class voters who came out for Trump last year are experiencing a profound sense of betrayal—even before bread-and-butter economic impacts of the conflict really starts to play out.
Oil prices have fluctuated wildly since Israel began its attack on June 13. If Iran takes the step of partially or fully blocking the Strait of Hormuz—through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes—gas prices could shoot up toward $4.50 a gallon or higher. This is one of the reasons Trump called a sudden halt. As he posted on social media:
“EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I’M WATCHING! YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY. DON’T DO IT!.”
Already, MAGA circles have been openly discussing the crisis their cross-class coalition faces. In the days leading up to the US attack, the director of Big Data Poll, a conservative outlet that has consistently given Trump the most favorable ratings of any major polling firm, warned that a war with Iran would spell catastrophe for Trumpism:
“Kiss the Republican majority goodbye … For the next decade,” Rich Baris, director of the pollster, wrote on X. “If he pulls the trigger, it’s all over for MAGA.”
Despite its limited scope, the immediate cost of “Operation Midnight Hammer” was staggering. The 14 GBU-57 MOP bombs were developed by the US Army at a cost of over $500 million. Meanwhile, each of the more than two dozen Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missile (TLAM) used in the strike carry a price tag of $2,400,000, totaling more than $57.6 million. The seven B-2 bomber planes, which each cost $2 billion to make, run at a cost of $135,000 per hour, totaling about $34 million dollars, just for the time they spent in the air. These line items barely scratch the surface of the costs involved in preparing and executing the entire operation.
While Trump spends billions to attack a country that posed zero military threat to the US, American workers are bracing for a package of austerity cuts in the form of the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The planned cuts to Medicare could cause the poorest 10% of the US population to lose an average of $1,600 each. This is before factoring in all the other economic chaos on the horizon over debt, inflation, and more.
As we’ve long pointed out, the fault lines in the Trump movement have been intensifying, primarily around class issues. The social and economic fallout of Trump’s war could be the catalyst for the complete breakdown of illusions in Trump. In short, we are witnessing the beginning of the beginning of the end of Trumpism as a political phenomenon.
Without a concrete political alternative that can unite the working-class majority around class issues, however, millions will be forced to cling to Trump as a “lesser evil” alternative to the even more despised liberals. But once the pent-up anger finds another outlet, the growing forces of communism will be working systematically to connect with it on a class basis.
Israel vows to continue its slaughter
In response to the announcement of a ceasefire with Iran, the Chief of Staff of the IDF warned that, “we have concluded a significant chapter, but the campaign against Iran is not over,” adding that Israel has “set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same goes for its missile program … Now the focus returns to Gaza.”
Leaving aside the lies and bluster—Iran is far better positioned to upgrade and rearm with the support of Russia and China, than Israel is with the support of the West’s Ukraine-depleted stores—the depravity of the Zionist butchers is appalling.
Indeed, Israel’s genocidal carnage in Gaza has quietly ramped up while the world’s attention was focused on its aggression against Iran. Health authorities have reported that at least 870 Palestinians were killed by the IDF during the last 13 days, bringing the official death toll to over 56,000—not counting the countless thousands buried uncounted under the rubble. And to think that the Israelis and their US backers have the gall to refer to Iran as the “world’s most dangerous regime”!
Communists recognize that the world’s most dangerous regimes—beginning with US imperialism—are already armed with the world’s most dangerous weapons. To maintain his grip on power, Netanyahu is energetically seeking to entangle the US in a new phase of the decades-long “forever war” in the Middle East. Trump, meanwhile, is trying to manage the inexorable decline of US imperialism, lashing out erratically and violently like a wounded animal in the process. Regime change and the destabilization—or even break up—of Iran was the primary motivation for the attack, so we should not be surprised if the ceasefire is shattered at any moment.
It is the task of the international working class to disarm these imperialists—through a world socialist revolution—before they plunge every corner of the globe into the kind of barbarism they continue to unleash on the Middle East.
