THE 12-DAY WAR: How Trump Forestalled Armageddon

Trump's Operation Midnight Hammer ended Israel's Operation Rising Lion

“In the end the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves. Peace, prosperity and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing that same heritage that you love so dearly, and it’s something only you could do.”¹ - President Donald J. Trump’s speech at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 16, 2025

“Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term! The white structure shown is deeply imbedded into the rock, with even its roof well below ground level, and completely shielded from flame. The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!”² — President Donald J. Trump, June 22, 2025

President Trump in The White House Situation Room overseeing Operation Midnight Hammer

On Friday, June the 13th, just two days before the scheduled sixth-round of the Iran-US nuclear talks in Oman, Israeli forces executed a unilateral military strike.³ This was surely the opening salvo of World War III. The Four Horsemen saddled their steeds, with the rider of the Red Horse soon astride with sword unsheathed. However, what had started in the dead of night with a dastardly “decapitation-strike” on Tehran, ended just twelve-days later with a whimpering ceasefire. Amidst the cacophonous squabbling amongst disheartened hard-line America First supporters and jubilant detractors, as the MAGA-base fractured and confusion, horror and dismay befell most — Trump was forced to act. When the bunker-buster dust finally settled… there was peace.

The Trump-brokered ceasefire held, with both warring countries proclaiming their respective victories. Seven B-2 bombers had dropped a payload of fourteen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOPs) “bunker busters”⁴ on two Iranian nuclear facilities, and over two-dozen Tomahawk missiles had been launched from a US submarine at a third.⁵ The controversial sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were all “obliterated,”⁶ and Trump repeatedly laboured the point that Operation Midnight Hammer was “Hiroshima-like,” in that it was war ending, and final.⁷

Operation Midnight Hammer — graphic by The Sun, U.S.

The Twelve-Day Israeli-Iran War had ended.

It was not meant to end.

Three years in the planning (predating October 7, 2023), the Israeli Operation Rising Lion⁸ was the surprise upwards pounce that was intended to puncture the jugular of the Iranian Regime. The stealthy hunt was regime change. Tricked, misdirected, and anticipating only diplomacy and political decorum — the Iranians were complacent and vulnerable.⁹ The pre-emptive strike had struck Iran in its sleepy unawares. Like the neighbouring ill-fated nations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, the defiant Iranians were long targeted to be dragged down, only to be mauled, torn asunder and consumed by American Imperialism.

That was the plan.

The initial Israeli strikes of Operation Rising Lion - graphic provided by The Sun, UK

The trite 30-year-old warning¹⁰ of Iran being merely “days away” from obtaining a nuclear weapon was merely a flimsy pretext. Much like the “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction” hoax, the true objective was to depose The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and to install a pre-groomed pro-Western puppet: Reza Pahlavi — the son of Iran’s last shah¹¹ who had conveniently lived most of his life exiled in Washington, D.C.

Reza Pahlavi —The son of Iran’s last shah and the perfect pro-Israeli Western puppet in waiting.

Israel’s unilateral opening strike was intended to force the hand of Trump to reflexively engage the arm of the 250-year-old US military: planes-in-the-air, boots-on-the-ground.

There was to be blood — new rivers to the Red Sea.

In the chaotic aftermath, it was projected that the The Axis of Resistance¹² would be ruptured, and militarily subjugated. Iran was always the last of the seven countries that the Pentagon (at the behest of Israeli regional interests) had intended “to take out in five years” as part of the contrived Global War On Terror.¹³ It was strategised that the Islamic Republic of Iran would eventually be embroiled in a protracted civil war amongst the smouldering ruins of Persia — an impotent and failed-state to be gluttonously plundered. Yet, none of this came to pass.

Many geopolitical pundits still remain bewildered. Most had prematurely mocked the tenuous ceasefire — and then it held. Desirous of clicks and engagement, and ever-giddy to be right, they got almost everything wrong. Their inured biases, reflexive hysteria, and shrieks of MAGA-betrayal had entirely skewed the accuracy of their doom-critiques. In fairness, the seemingly obvious trajectory of events had indicated that another American-led protracted war was inevitable. Trump’s public bluster was oftentimes characteristic of the warmongering rhetoric of the Bush-era, and America was almost certainly being railroaded into yet another interventionist war — and then, suddenly, it was not.

Quite simply, Trump deftly outsmarted the ever-cunning Israelis: The Art of Peace.

Despite being “Israel’s greatest friend in the White House” —either coerced or otherwise— and ever-beholden to his “greatest ally,” Trump did not wish to enter America into another Middle Eastern “endless war.” To do so would terminally undermine all stated goals of his America First agenda. Any sustained military intervention would represent a total Deep State capitulation —a checkmate capture— and would prove anathema to MAGA and his populist base. Unable to pivot, Trump would be haplessly entangled in the strings of all previous US Presidential puppets. He would be discredited and loathed for his anti-American treachery. Yet, he had to do something, and that something had to be universally perceived as an action benefiting Israel.

In January, Trump had shared an “inflammatory” video link on his Truth Social¹⁴ by Jewish Professor Jeffery Sachs revealing that he was well apprised of what he was up against:

“The guy is nothing if not obsessive (Benjamin Netanyahu), and he is still trying to get us to fight Iran this day, this week, he’s a deep dark son-of-a-bitch, sorry to tell you, cause he has gotten us into endless wars, and because of the power of all of this in the US politics he’s gotten his way, but that war was totally phoney, so what is this Democracy versus Dictatorship? Come on, these are not even sensible times.” — Professor Jeffery Sachs¹⁵

Exactly one month later, during Benjamin Netanyahu’s first visit to The White House in Trump’s second Presidential term, a sly retort was offered by Bibi in the form of a preposterously garish gift. The truly morbid Golden Pager¹⁶ was undoubtedly a veiled threat for the returning Commander-in-Chief who wanted to preside over a new American Golden Era — take our call, or we might just make the call to take your head, and yes, I am a deep-dark son-of-a-bitch.

Trump knew that the Zionists would be inflexible and ruthless, and that he would have to appear to play along until he could end the game. Throughout his 2024 Presidential Campaign, he had boasted about “not starting any new wars” in his first term. He was emphatic during his second Presidential Inaugural Address that his “proudest legacy would be to be remembered as a unifier and a peacemaker.”¹⁷

All that seemed to be about to be upturned.

Netanyahu had just started a regional fight he could not finish alone — and he was dragging the Trump Administration along. Indeed, it was known from the outset that Israel could not militarily sustain and dominate the conflict without direct American intervention. The United States is undoubtedly an Israeli protectorate, and Israel demanded protection from Iran’s retaliatory onslaught. Trump had remained taciturn about America’s direct involvement, and announced he would “make a decision to join the war within two weeks.”¹⁸ Israel did not have two weeks. He left the rapidly depleting Iron Dome System to deter, deflect and often fail as ballistic missiles, drones and what appeared to be hypersonics bombarded Tel Aviv.

There was extraordinary pressure to “save Israel” and to enter the war.

Israel proved to be vulnerable

Then there was the consideration of a kinetically-spiralling and potentially much more expansive war-theatre: World War III. Iran had recently signed a “Iranian–Russian Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”¹⁹ with Russia, and supplied a dependant China with 1.38 million barrels of Iranian crude oil per day. Iran is thoroughly integrated into the alliance of BRICS Nations — it was not isolated. The fellow Islamic Republic of Pakistan had also threatened a retaliatory nuclear strike on Tel Aviv should Israel nuke Iran.²⁰ Other invested nations were certainly waiting in the sidelines to partake if their interconnected interests were truly threatened.

Trump was certainly shunted into a calculated bind, and had to act accordingly.

Directing sole focus to the “nuclear” pretext, Trump resolved to end it decisively on the Summer Solstice with Operation Midnight Hammer. If he could neutralise the supposed “nuclear threat,” he would appear to have acted with American superiority, while simultaneously removing all justification for further American military involvement. The outcome would be the complete extrication of America from yet another “endless war,” while satisfying the publicly stated goals of Israel. With the pretext nullified, the true ambition of “regime change” would be abandoned — and the war would be forced to end.

That was Trump’s strategy. He would call Bibi’s “uranium” bluff.

President Trump in the White House Situation Room, wearing his "Make America Great Again" hat, as he monitored the US strikes.

Tellingly, Trump also “vetoed the Israeli assassination of Khamenei,”²¹ later remarking that, "Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don't want to see so much chaos. I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible."²²

The inevitable “face-saving” Iranian retaliation against Operation Midnight Hammer was also subdued, contained, and seemingly approved by partnered mediators. Many fretted over the potential retaliatory closing of The Strait of Hormuz²³ and the global economic turmoil that would ensue — but their fears were ill-founded. The Iranian response was purely symbolic, resulting in no casualties and minimal damage, and was telegraphed long before the corresponding fourteen missiles (comically, one for each of the fourteen bunker busters) were fired at the evacuated US Military base in Al Udeid, Qatar.²⁴

Trump was quick to give a situation report on his Truth Social, effectively defining the “retaliation” as final, and declaring the terms of his ceasefire, and even persuasively naming the Israeli-Iranian conflict as “The Twelve-Day War” to facilitate its conclusion: the Art of the Deal. There would not be a thirteenth day. Even if the two countries had “been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing,”²⁵ they would ultimately do as they were told. Especially, checkmated Israel. It was over.

It is apparent that a diplomatic back-channel was always in play between the US and Iran. Russia and China were most likely apprised of crucial developments throughout. It may also be speculated that Iran had purposefully green-lit the American strikes on their three known nuclear sites. Each location had been vacated, fortified, and seemingly offered as a sacrificial token to be officially “obliterated.” In so doing, The Supreme Leader’s Islamic Republic of Iran was preserved, and all plausible justification for further warfare was repelled. It was a Nation-saving strategy.

It may be surmised that the American-Iranian “clash” might have all been a calculated gambit, an elaborate ruse, all perfectly executed in the pursuit of peace.

Without direct American intervention, Israel had soon lost its momentum, and once Trump had acted — it had lost its pretext for war.

A larger regional war was artfully circumvented, and Trump only strengthened his reputation as a Peacemaker; and despite being momentarily diverted, he could now refocus on domestic soil and America First with his Presidency intact.

The Red Horse had been stopped at a canter, only to impatiently snort as the great sword was re-sheathed by its silent rider. Before the unlucky thirteenth day it had all ended: it would come to be known as The Twelve-Day War.

Armageddon had been forestalled.

Without direct American intervention, Israel would have been defeated — the Trump-brokered ceasefire saved Israel and prevented American “boots-on-the-ground.”

1. https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-trumps-speech-in-riyadh-dawn-of-the-bright-new-day-for-the-great-people-of-the-middle-east/

2. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/06/irans-nuclear-facilities-have-been-obliterated-and-suggestions-otherwise-are-fake-news/

3. https://apnews.com/article/mossad-iran-israel-weapons-missiles-a504ee31c70857c8d86a0d066997e344

4. https://www.airandspaceforces.com/the-weapons-of-operation-midnight-hammer-mops-tomahawks-and-more/

5. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/27/politics/bunker-buster-bomb-isfahan-iran

6. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/06/irans-nuclear-facilities-have-been-obliterated-and-suggestions-otherwise-are-fake-news/

7. "I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war," Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in The Hague.

8. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14811049/Israel-attack-Iran-years-planning.html

9. https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/174763/Israel-iran-attack-war-nuclear

10. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-vetoed-an-israeli-plan-kill-irans-supreme-leader-us-officials-say-2025-06-15/

11. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/06/24/reza-pahlavi-iran-regime-change-00417941

12. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-03/what-is-irans-axis-of-resistance-who-is-part-of-it/104423298

13. We’re going to take out 7 countries in 5 years” — Gen. Wesley Clark (2007) exposed a chilling post-9/11 U.S. military strategy: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally Iran.

14. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113789043423746072

15. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/08/trump-video-crude-reference-netanyahu

16. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/06/middleeast/netanyahu-trump-golden-pager-intl

17. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-saying-he-wants-to-be-peacemaker-and-unifier-trump-vows-to-rename-gulf-of-america

18. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-20/donald-trump-iran-israel-decision-strikes-continue/105439658

19. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/17/russia-and-iran-presidents-sign-partnership-treaty-in-moscow

20. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14815831/Pakistan-tells-Iran-NUKE-Israel-Netanyahu-uses-nuclear-weapons-against-Tehran-regime-officer-claims-huge-WW3-apocalypse-threat.html

21. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trump-vetoed-an-israeli-plan-kill-irans-supreme-leader-us-officials-say-2025-06-15/

22. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/trump-says-doesnt-want-regime-change-in-iran-cites-risk-of-chaos-8750620

23. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/23/what-is-the-strait-of-hormuz-iran-threat-close-global-trade-oil-shipping

24. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-24/irans-strikes-on-qatar-look-like-escalation-but-they-may-not-be/105452410

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