Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.
In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t have a nuclear program. It was obliterated.” In December he said, “We obliterated their nuclear capability.” He said the same in January, multiple times, even claiming we had obliterated Iran’s “enrichment capability.” As recently as this month Trump repeated the claim — “totally obliterated” was the phrase he used.
