WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon that he was not pleased with the way that nuclear talks had been going with Iran.
Three hours later, he gave the order to launch the operation that would take out many of the country's top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of top military chiefs.
This is how the operation unfolded:
Feb. 27, 2026
12:25 p.m. EST: Trump emerges from the White House on his way to Texas and tells reporters about the indirect negotiations with Iran: “I’m not happy with the way they’re going.”
“No, I haven't,” Trump says when asked if he had made a final decision on what to do next.
3:38 p.m. EST: As he flies aboard Air Force One to events in Texas, Trump gives the order to launch the operation, termed “Epic Fury.”
“The president directed, and I quote, ‘Operation Epic Fury approved ... Good luck,’” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a briefing Monday.
That order, Caine said, set up every element of the joint U.S. forces making their final preparations, with air defense batteries readying themselves and pilots and crews rehearsing their strike packages for the final time. Meanwhile, air crews began loading their final weapons and the two U.S. carrier strike groups began to move toward their launching points, Caine said.
During the nearly three-hour flight to Corpus Christi, Trump asked a small group of Republican lawmakers flying with him for their feedback on a potential strike on Iran. The group debated the merits of continuing negotiations vs. going ahead with a strike, but the general sentiment among those present was that the talks were largely a delay tactic by the Iranians, according to a person with direct knowledge of the Air Force One discussion.
Among those on the plane were Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, hawkish lawmakers who have both applauded Trump’s decision to strike Iran, and a handful of House Republicans from Texas. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private discussion with Trump.
As he continued on to Texas, Trump posts several times on Truth Social, including — nine minutes after giving the strike order — a directive that the U.S. government stop using Anthropic artificial intelligence technology after an unusually public dispute between the company and the Pentagon over AI safeguards.
4:03 p.m. EST: Landing in Texas, Trump speaks with reporters at the Port of Corpus Christi, fielding questions about the negotiations. Again, he says he's “not happy” but did not indicate that an operation had been approved. He did not answer a question on how close he was to making a decision on strikes.
“I’d rather not tell you,” Trump says. “You would have had the greatest scoop in history, right? Yeah.”
Feb. 28, 2026
1:15 a.m. EST: The actual operation begins, according to a timeline that Caine laid out Monday.
“Across every domain — land, air, sea, cyber,” U.S. forces “delivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s ability to conduct and sustain combat operations on the U.S. side,” Caine said.
At the Pentagon briefing, Caine said the operation “included thousands of service members from all branches, hundreds of advanced fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, dozens of refueling tankers, the Lincoln and Ford carrier strike group and their embarked air wings."
He said munitions and fuel supplies kept flowing and had support from a vast network that included intelligence and surveillance. He also noted that more forces are still flowing into the region.
The operation follows months of work by the CIA to track the movements of senior Iranian leadership, including Khamenei. Intelligence was shared with Israel, and the timing of Saturday's strikes was adjusted as a result, according to a person familiar with the operation who like others was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Tehran, explosions are heard, and Israel's defense minister declares a state of emergency.
A barrage of three strikes in three locations hit within a single minute — killing Khamenei and some 40 senior figures, including the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and the country’s defense minister, an Israeli military official said.
4:37 p.m. EST: On his Truth Social social media site, Trump announces Khamenei's death, saying the supreme leader was “unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems.”
Cornyn, the Texas senator, told reporters on Saturday that Trump “didn’t tell us what he was going to do.” While campaigning ahead of the state’s primaries on Tuesday, Cornyn said Trump “posted the question of whether Iran must be stopped by whatever necessary action that he might choose to take.”
March 1, 2026
12:21 p.m. EST: On Truth Social, Trump says U.S. forces have “destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships," would be “going after the rest" and “largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”
4:06 p.m. EST: In a video message, the Republican president said the U.S. military and its partners hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities and Iranian air defense systems “all in a matter of literally minutes.”
Trump says he expected the strikes would continue until “all of our objectives are achieved.” He does not spell out what those objectives are.
Also Sunday, Trump administration officials tell congressional staff in private briefings that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the U.S., according to three people familiar with the briefings.
The administration officials instead acknowledged that there was a more general threat in the region from Iran's missiles and proxy forces, two of the people said.
A senior White House official also says Sunday that Iran’s “new potential leadership” has suggested it is open to talks with the United States.
March 2, 2026
8 a.m. EST: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing that the U.S. is not engaged in a nation-building effort in Iran and that ongoing strikes won't be the prelude to a long, sustained conflict.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” he said. “This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.”
Also Monday, Trump said at an unrelated event at the White House that he expects the operation in Iran to last four to five weeks but that “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”
In a brief phone interview with the New York Post, the president said he wasn’t ruling out U.S. forces in Iran if “they were necessary.”
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like, every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump told the newspaper.
Other nations in the region took a defensive posture. The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted nine ballistic and six cruise missiles and 148 drones Monday. Qatar said its air force shot down 2 Iranian warplanes.
During market trading, the price of oil jumped as tanker disruptions near the Strait of Hormuz raised fears about supply shortages from the Persian Gulf.
Global markets also were rattled by the strikes, with U.S. futures following markets in Europe and Asia lower.
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed this report. Meg Kinnard reported from Charleston, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
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