President Donald Trump announced Monday that initial military strikes against Iran successfully targeted dozens of top-tier officials during a high-level breakfast meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The President confirmed Khamenei’s death via a Truth Social post on Saturday, shortly after the launch of “Operation Epic Fury” earlier that morning.
Reporting on a conversation with the President, “Special Report” host Bret Baier stated that Trump expressed satisfaction with the operation’s progress. According to Baier, the strike caught the Iranian leadership off guard due to the unconventional timing of the attack.
“I said this is, it’s a tough succession plan in Iran. He said 49 leaders is deep, it’s very deep,” Baier recounted during an appearance on “America’s Newsroom.” “When they met, they met for breakfast. They assumed it was good for a lot of reasons. Number one, they didn’t think we knew, but you never attack in the morning, having to do with winds and sun and a lot of things. It just, it was amazing that we knew everything we knew.”
READ: Flames Over the Gulf: Trump Warns Of Weeks Of Combat After Khamenei Killed
The strike reportedly eliminated 49 Iranian leaders at once—a result the administration initially expected would take nearly a month to achieve. Trump noted that the swift removal of the established hierarchy has left the Iranian government in a state of confusion regarding succession.
“They’re using people, studying people to be the leader that even they don’t know who they are,” Trump reportedly said. Baier noted that the President pointed to Venezuela as a potential “template” for the ground-level transition following the strikes.
Despite the reported success of the operation, the conflict has resulted in American casualties. On Monday, CENTCOM confirmed that a fourth U.S. servicemember has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s initial attacks. RELATED: Fourth U.S. Service Member Dies Following Iranian Attacks In Operation Epic Fury
The administration is currently weighing its next steps regarding a presence in the region. During a Monday briefing at the Pentagon, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that the administration is not ruling out the possibility of deploying U.S. ground troops to Iran as the situation develops.
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