President Donald Trump will host the U.S. Air Force pilots who led the recent bombing mission on Iranian nuclear facilities at the White House later today. The event is part of Washington, D.C.’s Independence Day celebrations and includes a military flyover featuring F-22s, B-2s, and F-35s — the same aircraft used in the operation.
“President Trump looks forward to celebrating our nation’s founding on Friday in the nation’s capital,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a triumphant statement.
Trump had previously hinted at the meeting during a recent interview with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, though he stopped short of revealing that it would take place on Independence Day, as Just the News reported:
Leavitt has since confirmed that the pilots, along with additional personnel from Whiteman Air Force Base where the bombers are based in Missouri, will attend the event, CBS News reported.
The invitation comes after the Trump administration slammed media coverage of the bombings. Trump heavily criticized the New York Times and CNN for covering a preliminary report that claimed the bombing had only set Iran back in its nuclear program by a few months, leaving out the fact that the report claimed low confidence in its findings. The president and his administration have repeatedly stated that the operation succeeded in effectively eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The president has even called for the CNN reporter who covered the bombing to be fired from the network, because her “slant was so obviously negative.”
“She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network,” he said in a post on Truth Social last week.
The mission, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, targeted three key Iranian nuclear sites: Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. Seven B-2 Spirit bombers flew a 37-hour round-trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, deploying 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs. The operation involved over 125 aircraft and included midair refuelings and support from fighter jets and surveillance planes.
The pilots’ presence at the White House on Independence Day serves both as a celebration of their service and as a symbolic gesture of the administration’s commitment to national security.
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