Standing at the lectern in the White House briefing room on Thursday afternoon, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, read a message she said came “directly from the president.”

Because of the “substantial chance of negotiations” with Iran that could bring the United States back from the brink of jumping into the war in the Middle East, President Trump’s statement said, he would make a decision about whether or not to strike Iran “within the next two weeks.”

Mr. Trump had been under pressure from the noninterventionist wing of his party to stay out of the conflict, and was having lunch that day with one of the most outspoken opponents of a bombing campaign, Stephen K. Bannon, fueling speculation that he might hold off.

It was almost entirely a deception. Mr. Trump had all but made up his mind to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, and the military preparations were well underway for the complex attack. Less than 30 hours after Ms. Leavitt relayed his statement, he would give the order for an assault that put the United States in the middle of the latest conflict to break out in one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Mr. Trump’s “two weeks” statement was just one aspect of a broader effort at political and military misdirection that took place over eight chaotic days, from the first Israeli strikes against Iran to the moment when a fleet of B-2 stealth bombers took off from Missouri for the first American military strikes inside Iran since that country’s theocratic revolution in 1979.

Image

Journalists watching as President Trump addressed the nation after American bombs were dropped on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday night. Credit...Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times

Pacific

Ocean

Diversion tactic

One or more decoy B-2s took

off from and headed west.

They were later spotted over

the Pacific Ocean.

Planes

spotted

U.S.

Naval support

A Navy submarine in the

area used cruise missiles

to strike Isfahan.

Whiteman

Air Force Base

Missouri

Three sites

struck

IRAN

Atlantic

Ocean

Operation Midnight Hammer

Seven B-2s headed east across the Atlantic,

refueling multiple times along the way before

bombing Fordo and Natanz. After the bombing,

the planes headed back to the U.S.

Diversion tactic

One or more decoy B-2s took

off from and headed west.

They were later spotted over

the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific

Ocean

Planes spotted

Naval support

A Navy submarine in the

area used cruise missiles

to strike Isfahan.

U.S.

Whiteman

Air Force Base

Missouri

Three sites

struck

IRAN

Atlantic

Ocean

Operation Midnight Hammer

Seven B-2s headed east across the Atlantic,

refueling multiple times along the way before

bombing Fordo and Natanz. After the bombing,

the planes headed back to the U.S.

By Lazaro Gamio

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