Trump says focus should be on ‘tremendous,’ ‘flawless’ attack on Iran, not Epstein

President Donald Trump says Americans' focus should be on the “tremendous” and “flawless” U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear sites rather than on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, critiquing what he saw as the misplaced priorities of some Republicans during an exclusive interview Wednesday with Just the News.

Trump contrasted the impressive U.S. bombing run against Iranian nuclear weapon facilities last month with President Jimmy Carter’s failed hostage rescue mission in 1980 and President Joe Biden’s final U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, during an interview Wednesday with the Just the News, No Noise television show.

The president lamented that some Republicans were focused on Epstein “instead of talking about this tremendous, this flawless attack on nuclear weapons that took place in Iran — flawless.”

“Compare that to Jimmy Carter where the helicopters were crashing into each other, right? And everybody was captured. It was a national disgrace,” Trump said, adding, “I remember so vividly — younger, long time ago — but those helicopters in the storm, and landing, and crashing. What a disgrace that was. What an embarrassment that was.”

The special forces mission ordered by Carter in 1980 was an effort to rescue U.S. embassy staffers taken hostage in Iran by the regime in 1979, but it ended in calamity and failure, as detailed by the Pentagon inspector general.

Trump added, “Or compare that to Afghanistan – the way we left, the way we left, like humiliated and defeated. With a president that was no good. With a general that was no good — [Mark] Milley. These guys were terrible.”

Thirteen U.S. service members were killed on Aug. 26, 2021, in a suicide-bombing attack, and the Pentagon left behind an estimated $7 billion in equipment.  

“Compare that with what we just did, in a much more complicated – this is much harder, much more complicated,” Trump said. “Those planes flew for 37 hours back and forth, and we didn’t have — there wasn’t a bad bolt on the planes. I mean, everything was flawless. It was a flawless campaign.”

The president said that “we don’t have that anymore” as he pointed to the U.S. bombing in Iran, arguing that “that’s what we oughta be talking about – not nonsense” like Epstein – a wealthy financier and convicted sex-offender who had purportedly left behind a "client list" of well-known individuals. Epstein committed suicide while behind bars in August 2019. 

Hegseth: “Incredible and overwhelming success”

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine gave a press conference the day after “Operation Midnight Hammer” and CENTCOM’s successful strikes against Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Hegseth called it an “incredible and overwhelming success” and said that “we devastated the Iranian nuclear program” and that “Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been obliterated.” Hegseth said that “many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran’s nuclear program, and none could, until President Trump.”

Caine said that “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.”

Hegseth said that “this is a plan that took months and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could be ready when the POTUS called" and that "it took a great deal of precision, it involved a great deal of misdirection, and the highest level of opsec.”

The defense secretary recognized all of the airmen, sailors, and soldiers involved in elements of the mission, saying they were “warriors, all of them.”

Caine said that B-2 bombers launched west from the U.S. toward the Pacific in an effort to “maintain tactical surprise” as a “decoy” and a “deception effort.” 

The chairman said that the main strike package of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members, flew east from Missouri, and that it was an 18-hour flight to Iran with multiple mid-air refuelings. Caine said it was the largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history and was the second longest B-2 mission ever flown (only exceeded by those flown just after 9/11).

The chairman said he was unaware of any shots fired at the U.S. strike page on the way in, that he was unaware of any Iranian shots fired at the package on the way out, that Iran’s fighters did not take to the skies to engage, and that Iran’s surface-to-air systems did not respond.

The tragic failure of “Operation Eagle Claw”

The seeming success of last month’s strikes against Iran stands in stark contrast to Carter’s dealings with the Iranian regime.

Radical Iranian students and operatives backed by since-deceased Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took dozens of American embassy staffers hostage in 1979 and held them for 444 days.

The Defense Department earlier this year released a lengthy analysis of the failed hostage rescue mission dubbed “Operation Eagle Claw,” which was attempted by the Carter administration.

“The mission began on April 24, 1980, with the arrival of the MC-130s at Desert One. The plan almost immediately began to unravel. At Desert One, a passenger bus approached the landing zone. The advance party was forced to stop the vehicle and detain its 44 passengers. Then, a fuel truck approached, and when it failed to stop, a soldier fired an antitank weapon at it, which set the tanker on fire and lit the surrounding area. Then, a pickup truck approached but turned around.”

The Defense Department analysis continued: “Despite these intrusions, the assault team commanders decided to continue with the mission. As for the helicopters, two aborted because of flight instrument and mechanical problems, while the pilot of a third continued to Desert One despite experiencing hydraulic problems. The remaining helicopters encountered a severe dust storm, which delayed their arrival at Desert One by an hour.”

“Once at Desert One, the RH-53D with hydraulic problems could not be repaired, which left the team with just five helicopters available. Since there weren't enough helicopters to ensure success, the on-scene commander aborted the mission and released the detained bus passengers.  The plan then shifted to getting the assault team back on the MC-130s while the helicopters refueled and returned to the Nimitz,” the Defense Department article said. “At that point, tragedy struck. One of the helicopter's rotor blades collided with a fuel-laden EC-130. Both aircraft exploded, killing five of the 14 airmen on the EC-130 and three of the five Marine crew of the RH-53D. The team commanders ordered the remaining helicopters abandoned and everyone to board the EC-130s, which soon departed for Masirah Island. That concluded the operation.”

Since then, Iranian-backed terrorists were behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 241 U.S. service members. And the Iranian regime was behind the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel.

Iran and its IRGC played a key role in fueling the deadly insurgency in Iraq after the U.S. invaded in 2003, with a spokesman for the Defense Department stating in 2019 that Iran was responsible for “at least 603” U.S. service member deaths and that that “the casualties were the result of explosively formed penetrators, other improvised explosive devices, improvised rocket-assisted munitions, rockets, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms, sniper, and other attacks in Iraq.”

The State Department also assessed in 2020 that, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, "Iran has allowed Al Qaeda facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran since at least 2009, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters” and that “senior AQ leaders continued to reside in Iran and facilitate terrorist operations from there."

Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawl

The success of the U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear sites in June also demonstrated a level of U.S. military effectiveness which seemed lacking during the tail end of the war in Afghanistan.

Then-President Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in an April 2021 speech, setting the withdrawal deadline for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. The Taliban conducted a rapid takeover of the country in the ensuing months and swept into the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15, 2021. The chaotic and deadly non-combatant evacuation operation by the U.S. was conducted while the U.S. military relied upon a hostile Taliban to provide security outside the airport.

An ISIS-K suicide bomber named Abdul Rahman al-Logari — who had been freed by the Taliban from a prison at Bagram Air Base in mid-August 2021 mere weeks after the U.S. abandoned the base — has been identified as having carried out the suicide attack at Abbey Gate, which also killed an estimated 170 Afghan civilians while wounding dozens of other U.S. troops and scores of Afghans in the crowd, on August 26, 2021.

Trump announced in March that the U.S. had extradited one of the ISIS-K terrorists responsible for the August 2021 Abbey Gate terrorist attack. Mohammad Sharifullah, captured with the help of Pakistani intelligence, was extradited to the U.S. last month. The FBI said that Sharifullah confessed to being involved in “route reconnaissance” in the lead-up to the Abbey Gate attack.

Epstein saga lingers

Drama related to Epstein has roiled the Justice Department and FBI.

The DOJ and FBI released a memo earlier this month concluding that their “systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.

The DOJ and FBI said that “the files relating to Epstein include a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.” The two agencies also said that “this review confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims.”

“One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends,” the DOJ and FBI said. “To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”

The DOJ and FBI both also said that “after a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019.”

Frustration over how Attorney General Pam Bondi had handled the Epstein saga over the past few months reportedly led FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino to threaten to resign from the bureau if Trump did not fire Bondi, according to multiple reports, though Bongino reportedly returned to work at the FBI on Monday.

“The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been,” Patel tweeted from his personal X account over the weekend. “It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump — and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.”

Trump had defended Bondi in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals’? They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” Trump said. “We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”