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.”

白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特上周四下午站在白宫简报室的讲台上宣读了一份她说是“直接来自总统”的声明。

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.”

由于存在与伊朗“谈判的很大可能性”，或使美国免于卷入中东战争，总统将“在未来两周里”决定是否对伊朗进行打击。

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.

特朗普一直受到来自共和党内部“不干涉派”让他不要卷入战争的压力。上周四那天，他曾与最直言不讳反对美国轰炸行动的人之一史蒂芬·班农一起共进午餐，引发了人们对特朗普可能会推迟行动的猜测。

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.

那几乎完全是障眼法。特朗普轰炸伊朗核设施的决心几乎已定，而且军方也已经在为这场复杂的攻击进行充分准备。莱维特转发了特朗普的声明不到30个小时后，特朗普就下令发动打击，让美国卷入了世界上最动荡地区之一最新爆发的一场冲突。

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.

特朗普的所谓“两周”声明，不过是混乱的八天里（从以色列对伊朗首次发动攻击起，到B-2隐形轰炸机编队从密苏里州升空）更广泛的政治和军事误导行动的冰山一角。这是自1979年伊朗神权革命以来，美国第一次对伊朗境内实施军事打击。

美国上周六向伊朗核设施投掷了炸弹后，记者们在屏幕前观看特朗普总统的全国讲话。

Interviews with administration officials, Trump allies and advisers, Pentagon officials and others familiar with the events show how, during this period, different factions of Mr. Trump’s allies jockeyed to win over a president who was listing in all directions over whether to choose war, diplomacy or some combination.

对政府官员、特朗普的盟友和顾问、五角大楼官员，以及其他知情人士的采访揭示，在这段时间里，特朗普盟友中的不同派系如何运用手段谋取影响总统决策，而此时的他在战争、外交，还是两种手段的某种结合之间犹豫不决。

Outsiders tried to divine which faction was ascendant based on whom Mr. Trump met with at any given time. Mr. Trump seemed almost gleeful in telling reporters that he could make a decision “one second before it’s due, because things change, especially with war.”

局外人试图通过特朗普在某个时间的会晤对象来揣测哪个派系占了上风。特朗普近乎得意地告诉记者，他可以在“到期前的一秒钟”做决定，“因为情况瞬息万变，尤其是战争。”

All the while, Mr. Trump was making blustery statements indicating he was about to take the country into the conflict. “Everyone should evacuate Tehran!” he wrote on Monday last week on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. The following day, he posted that he had not left a meeting of the Group of 7 in Canada to broker a Middle East cease-fire but for something “much bigger.”

与此同时，特朗普持续发表激烈言论，表示他准备让美国卷入冲突。“所有人都应该撤离德黑兰！”他上周一在自创社交媒体平台Truth Social上写道。次日他接着发帖称，提前离开在加拿大召开的七国集团峰会不是为了促成中东停火，而是为了“更大的事情”。

So, he told the world, “Stay tuned!”

于是，他向全球喊话：“拭目以待！”

These public pronouncements generated angst at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, where military planners began to worry that Mr. Trump was giving Iran too much warning about an impending strike.

这些公开声明在五角大楼和美国中央司令部引发了焦虑，军事规划人员开始担心，特朗普正在给予伊朗过多即将发动打击的预警。

They built their own deception into the attack plan: a second group of B-2 bombers that would leave Missouri and head west over the Pacific Ocean in a way that flight trackers would be able to monitor on Saturday. That left a misimpression, for many observers and presumably Iran, about the timing and path of the attack, which would come from another direction entirely.

他们把障眼法也放进了打击计划中：上周六，让第二组B-2轰炸机从密苏里起飞后向西穿越太平洋，刻意让飞行追踪器捕捉到航迹。这给许多观察人士、想必也包括伊朗对打击的时间和路径留下了一个错误印象，认为打击会来自一个完全不同的方向。

The strike plan was largely in place when Mr. Trump issued his Thursday statement about how he might take up to two weeks to decide to go to war with Iran. Refueling tankers and fighter jets had been moved into position, and the military was working on providing additional protection for American forces stationed in the region.

特朗普上周四发表关于可能需要最多两周时间来决定是否打击伊朗的声明时，打击计划已基本准备就绪。加油机和战斗机已进入状态，军方正加强中东地区驻军的防护部署。

While the “two weeks” statement bought the president more time for last-minute diplomacy, military officials said that ruse and the head fake with the B-2s also had the effect of cleaning up a mess — the telegraphing of the attack — that was partly of the president’s making.

虽然“两周”的声明为总统进行最后一刻的外交努力赢得了更多时间，但军方官员指出，这个障眼法和B-2轰炸机的假动作也起了清理混乱局面的作用——攻击意图提前泄露，而这在一定程度上也是总统自己造成的。

Asked to comment on the details of this article, Ms. Leavitt said the president and his team “successfully accomplished one of the most complex and historic military operations of all time” regarding Iran’s nuclear sites. She added that “many presidents have talked about this, but only President Trump had the guts to do it.”

当被要求对本文细节置评时，莱维特说，总统及其团队“对伊朗核设施成功实施了史上最复杂、最有历史意义的军事行动之一”。她还补充道，“虽然多位前任总统谈论过这件事，但只有特朗普总统有胆魄付诸行动。”

A Shifting Tune

调子变了

特朗普今年4月在椭圆形办公室会见了以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡。

Mr. Trump had spent the early months of his administration warning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel against a strike on Iran. But by the morning of Friday, June 13, hours after the first Israeli attacks, Mr. Trump had changed his tune.

特朗普在执政的头几个月里曾一直警告以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡，不要对伊朗发动攻击。但在6月13日的那个周五上午，也就是以色列开始发起攻击数小时后，特朗普改变了态度。

He marveled to advisers about what he said was a brilliant Israeli military operation, which involved a series of precision strikes that killed key figures in Iran’s military leadership and blasted away strategic weapons sites. Mr. Trump took calls on his cellphone from reporters and began hailing the operation as “excellent” and “very successful” and hinting that he had much more to do with it than people realized.

他在顾问们面前大为赞叹以色列的军事行动，称其太棒了，这些军事行动包括一系列精确打击，击毙了伊朗军方领导层关键人物，摧毁了战略武器基地。特朗普用自己的手机接听了记者打来的电话，开始称赞以色列的行动“非常出色”、“非常成功”，并暗示自己发挥的作用远超外界认知。

Later that day, Mr. Trump asked an ally how the Israeli strikes were “playing.” He said that “everyone” was telling him he needed to get more involved, including potentially dropping 30,000-pound GBU-57 bombs on Fordo, the Iranian uranium-enrichment facility buried underneath a mountain south of Tehran.

当天晚些时候，特朗普问了一名盟友以色列的打击“进展如何”。他说“所有人”都对他说，他需要更多地参与进去，包括向位于德黑兰南部福尔多山下的伊朗铀浓缩设施投掷13.6吨重的GBU-57炸弹的可能性。

The next day, the president told another adviser he was leaning toward using those “bunker buster” bombs on Fordo, while taking pride in both the bomb’s destructive power and the fact that the United States is the only country that has the bomb in its arsenal. The adviser left the conversation convinced that Mr. Trump had already decided to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.

第二天，总统对另一名顾问说，他倾向于对福尔多使用那些“碉堡克星”炸弹，同时为这种炸弹的破坏力以及美国是唯一拥有这种炸弹的国家感到自豪。这次对话让那名顾问对特朗普已做出了轰炸伊朗核设施的决定确信无疑。

At the same time, the president’s team was closely monitoring how their most prominent supporters were reacting on social media and on television to the prospect of the United States joining the war in a more visible way.

与此同时，总统团队密切关注他们最著名的支持者在社交媒体和电视上对美国以更公开的方式参与冲突的前景做何反应。

They paid close attention to the statements of Tucker Carlson, the influential podcaster and former Fox News host, who was vehemently opposed to the United States joining Israel in taking on Iran. Mr. Trump became infuriated by some of Mr. Carlson’s commentary and started complaining about him publicly and privately.

他们密切关注塔克·卡尔森的言论，这名颇有影响力的播客主持和福克斯新闻前主持人强烈反对美国加入以色列打击伊朗的行动。特朗普被卡尔森的一些言论激怒，并开始在公开场合和私下里对他表示不满。

Deliberations among administration officials about a possible American strike on Iran were in full swing by Sunday night, June 15, when Mr. Trump left for Canada for the Group of 7 meeting. Mr. Trump seemed to his advisers to be inching closer to approving a strike, even as he told them that Israel would be foolish to try to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

到特朗普6月15日启程前往加拿大参加七国集团峰会的那个周日的晚间，政府内部就美国打击伊朗的讨论已白热化。在顾问们看来，特朗普似乎正朝着批准打击伊朗行动的方向靠近，尽管他对顾问们说，如果以色列试图暗杀伊朗最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊的话，那是愚蠢之举。

Moreover, he said, if the United States were to strike Iran, the goal should be to decimate its nuclear facilities, not to bring down its government.

此外，他还说，如果美国要打击伊朗的话，目标应该是摧毁伊朗的核设施，而不是颠覆它的政权。

The ‘Biggest Threat to Opsec’

对行动保密的最大威胁

By then, a small group of top military officials at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command in Tampa had already begun refining attack plans on the Fordo facility and other Iranian nuclear sites that military planners had drawn up years ago.

到那时，五角大楼和坦帕中央司令部的一小群高级军官已开始完善针对福尔多等几处伊朗核设施的打击方案，军事规划人员在数年前就制定了相关方案。

The planning was led by Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the Centcom commander, and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

这项计划由中央司令部司令迈克尔·埃里克·库里拉将军和参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军领导。

一架对伊朗核设施完成了打击任务的B-2轰炸机周日返回到密苏里州怀特曼的空军基地。

B-2 stealth bombers, based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, are the only warplanes capable of delivering the GBU-57 bombs without detection by Iranian radar. B-2 bomber pilots have done extensive rehearsals for extended-range missions like the one before them — crossing the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, refueling multiple times before syncing up with fighter jets for the final flight leg into Iran.

驻扎在密苏里州怀特曼空军基地的B-2隐形轰炸机是唯一能够投掷GBU-57炸弹且不被伊朗雷达侦测的战机。B-2轰炸机飞行员为像这次这样的远程任务进行了充分演练——它们穿越大西洋和地中海，数次空中加油，然后与战斗机协同，完成最后进入伊朗的航程。

But even as the military planning was being conducted in secrecy, each of Mr. Trump’s social media posts seemed to be telling the world what was coming.

然而，尽管军事计划在秘密进行，特朗普的每一条社交媒体帖文似乎都在向世界预告即将发生的事情。

The president, said one military official, was the “biggest threat to opsec,” or operational security, that the planning faced.

一位军官表示，总统是该计划“行动安全的最大威胁”。

Shaping the Conversation

舆论操控

By Tuesday, June 17, Mr. Trump had largely made up his mind to strike Iran. But he took his coercive diplomacy to a new level, issuing menacing threats over social media.

到6月17日周二，特朗普基本敲定要对伊朗动手。但他将胁迫性外交提升到了一个新水平，通过社交媒体放狠话。

“We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” he posted on Truth Social, adding, “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” He demanded, in all-caps, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

“我们现已完全控制了伊朗的上空，”他在Truth Social平台上宣称，还说：“我们精准掌握了所谓‘最高领袖’的藏身地点。他就是个靶子，但他是安全的——我们不会除掉他（杀死！），至少目前不会。”文末以全大写字母强调：“无条件投降！”

By this point, several people in the anti-interventionist camp of Mr. Trump’s advisers realized they most likely could not prevent the president from hitting the Iranian nuclear facilities. So, they turned their focus on trying to ensure the American war did not spiral into an expansive “regime change” war.

此时，特朗普顾问团中的几位反干预派意识到，他们很可能无已法阻止总统攻击伊朗核设施。因此，他们将重心放在努力确保这场美国战争不会升级为一场全面“政权更迭”的战争。

That day, June 17, Vice President JD Vance posted a long series of posts on social media that many within the anti-interventionist camp interpreted as him seeding the ground for a potential U.S. military operation and preemptively defending the president’s likely decision. On Thursday, Mr. Trump was joined for lunch at the White House by Mr. Bannon, one of the most prominent critics of U.S. involvement in Israel’s war with Iran. Some wishful thinkers in the anti-interventionist camp interpreted the meeting as a sign that Mr. Trump was getting cold feet.

当天，即6月17日，副总统JD·万斯在社交媒体上连续发帖，许多反干预派人士对此的解读是，他正在为美国可能的军事行动做铺垫，并预先为总统可能的决定进行辩护。上周四，班农在白宫与特朗普共进午餐，班农是美国介入以伊战争最著名的批评者。反干预阵营中一些抱有幻想的人将这次会面解读为总统临阵退缩的信号。

Ms. Leavitt reinforced that sentiment when she delivered Mr. Trump’s statement, not long after Mr. Bannon arrived at the White House, indicating that he had given himself up to two weeks to make a decision, a time frame he often invoked for decisions on complex issues when he had no clear plan.

班农抵达白宫不久，莱维特便宣读了总统的声明，强化了这种印象。特朗普在声明中说，他给自己两周时间来做决定，他在处理复杂的问题却没有明确计划时，经常声称需要两周时间。

But Mr. Trump had already dictated Ms. Leavitt’s statement before he met with Mr. Bannon. It was a calculated misdirection intended to buy some breathing room for the president while suggesting that no attack was imminent.

但特朗普在与班农会面之前就已经向莱维特口述了声明。这是一种蓄意的误导，旨在为总统争取一些喘息空间，同时暗示攻击并非迫在眉睫。

On Friday, Mr. Trump left the White House in the afternoon for a fund-raising event at his club in Bedminster, N.J., his main summer retreat, further feeding the impression that no attack was imminent.

上周五下午，特朗普离开白宫，前往他在新泽西州贝德明斯特的俱乐部参加一场筹款活动，该俱乐部是他的主要夏季休养地，这进一步强化了攻击并非迫在眉睫的印象。

But within hours, around 5 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Trump ordered the military to begin its Iran mission. Given the 18 hours it would take the B-2s to fly from Missouri to Iran, he knew he still had many more hours to change his mind, as he did at the last minute in 2019, when he ordered airstrikes against Iranian targets and then aborted them.

然而，数小时后，大约在周五下午5点，特朗普命令军方开始伊朗任务。考虑到B-2轰炸机从密苏里飞往伊朗需要18小时，他知道自己还有很多时间可以改变主意，就像他在2019年最后一刻所做的那样，当时他下令对伊朗目标进行空袭然后又取消了。

But few in his administration believed he would pull back this time.

但政府内部几乎无人相信此次他会撤回命令。

举着伊朗国旗和伊朗革命创始人阿亚图拉·霍梅尼（右）、伊朗最高领袖大阿亚图拉阿里·哈梅内伊照片的抗议者们周日在德黑兰。

A One-Off, or Not

只是一次突袭，还是战争的前奏？

A complex and highly synchronized military operation began. Many hours after the two fleets of B-2s took off in opposite directions, the bombers bound for Iran joined up with fighter jets and flew into Iranian airspace.

一场高度协同的复杂军事行动就此展开。两支B-2编队朝相反方向起飞，数小时后，赴伊轰炸机编队与战斗机汇合突入伊朗领空。

American submarines launched 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles on the nuclear facilities in Natanz and Isfahan.

美国潜艇向纳坦兹和伊斯法罕的核设施发射了30枚战斧式巡航导弹。

As the planes approached Fordo and Natanz, the fighter jets swept in front of the bombers and fired strikes meant to suppress any surface-to-air missiles that Iran might muster, General Caine said in the Pentagon briefing on Sunday.

凯恩在周日的五角大楼简报会上表示，当飞机接近福尔多和纳坦兹时，战斗机飞到轰炸机前方发起打击，旨在压制伊朗任何可能的地对空导弹攻击。

At 2:10 a.m. Sunday morning Iran time, the lead bomber dropped two of the GBU-57 bombs on the Fordo site, buried deep under a mountainside and hundreds of feet of concrete. By the end of the mission, 14 of the “bunker buster” bombs had been dropped, the first time they had ever been used in combat.

伊朗时间周日凌晨2点10分，领头的轰炸机向福尔多设施投下了两枚GBU-57炸弹，该设施深埋于山体下数百英尺的混凝土中。任务最终共投下了14枚“碉堡克星”炸弹，这是它们首次在实战中使用。

Pentagon officials said Sunday that the American bombers and jet fighters never encountered any enemy fire.

五角大楼官员周日表示，美国战机未遭遇任何火力拦截。

Hours after the American aircraft had departed Iranian airspace, Mr. Trump gave a triumphant speech at the White House saying that the mission had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. He suggested that the war could end with this one-off mission if Iran would give up its nuclear program and negotiate.

在美国飞机离开伊朗领空数小时后，特朗普在白宫发表了胜利讲话，称此次任务“彻底摧毁了”伊朗的核能力。他暗示，如果伊朗放弃核计划并进行谈判，这场战争就可以通过这次一次性任务而结束。

By Sunday afternoon, however, American officials had tempered the optimism of the night before, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities might have been severely damaged, but not entirely destroyed.

然而，到上周日下午，美国官员降低了前一晚的乐观情绪，称伊朗的核设施或遭重创，但并未完全摧毁。

Mr. Vance acknowledged that there are questions about the whereabouts of Iran’s stock of near-bomb-grade uranium. He and Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that a regime change in Tehran — which could mean a protracted U.S. engagement — was not the goal.

万斯副总统坦言，伊朗近武器级铀储备的下落存疑。他与国务卿鲁比奥均强调，目标并非颠覆德黑兰政权，后者可能意味着美国卷入长期战争。

But Mr. Trump, whose operation was the subject of praise in news coverage not just from allies but some of his critics, had already moved on, hinting in a Truth Social post that his goals could be shifting.

特朗普的行动在媒体上赢得了盟友乃至部分批评者的赞誉，但他已经转向了新的焦点。他在Truth Social平台上发帖做出了暗示。

“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’” he wrote, “but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???”

“用‘政权更迭’这个词是政治上不正确的，”他写道，“但如果伊朗现政权做不到‘让伊朗再次伟大’，为什么不能有政权的更迭呢？？？”

麦克萨科技公司提供的卫星图像显示，美国的打击给伊朗福尔多的铀浓缩设施造成了破坏。