Fox News host Sean Hannity is justifying U.S. military strikes to force regime change in Iran because its leaders refuse “to give up their nuclear program,” which is interesting because the chief Trump propagandist said after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities last year that the country’s “nuclear ambitions” were “officially dead” — and attacked “the legacy media mob” for “rooting against our military, our country” by reporting otherwise.

President Donald Trump has assembled a huge military force in the Middle East for a potential “massive, weeks-long campaign” against Iran. He reportedly hasn’t settled on what the U.S. aims would be for an attack, and certainly hasn’t bothered to make a case for one to Congress or the public.

But Hannity is a longtime proponent of U.S. attacks on Iran and a shameless Trumpist lickspittle, so he is already on board. He opened his show on Wednesday night by declaring that “the clock is now ticking for the mullahs of Iran as the U.S. now continues their historic military buildup in the region.” 

“I do have a little advice for the radical leaders in Iran,” he added. “You may want to get on that plane to Russia sooner than you think — sooner than later. Now would be a good time.”

Later in the program, during an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the host posited that U.S. strikes were justified by Iran’s nuclear program. 

“The president was very clear,” Hannity said. “He gave them 50 days to give up their nuclear program. They wouldn't do it.”

The existence of an Iranian nuclear program may come as a surprise to Hannity’s audience.

On June 21, 2025, shortly after Trump announced that the U.S. military had unilaterally struck three Iranian nuclear strikes, Fox turned over its airwaves to Hannity for special coverage. Hannity said that he had spoken to the president and, based on what he had heard, declared that the attack had completely destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.

“Now tonight, Iran's nuclear ambitions, they are officially dead,” Hannity claimed. “It appears the United States just completely obliterated Iran's top secret Fordo nuclear facility.” The host added that two other Iranian nuclear sites had been “wiped out.” Later that night, Hannity touted the strikes as “one of the most skilled, important, imperative peacekeeping, peace-through-strength-keeping operations in the last 40 years.”

After Trump said in a speech that night that the Iranian nuclear sites were “completely and totally obliterated,” Hannity adopted that language — even as other U.S. officials warned it was too soon to make such a determination.

“The United States absolutely decimated, obliterated Iran's nuclear program over the weekend,” Hannity said on his June 23, 2025, Fox show, adding that “the Islamic Republic of Iran has been totally defanged, their nuclear program has been obliterated.”

On June 24, 2025, he similarly claimed that “the U.S. military completely obliterated Iran's nuclear program” and that “President Trump obliterated Iran's nuclear program with a massive strike.”

But that same night, both The New York Times and CNN reported that contrary to the president’s claims, a classified analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency found that the bombing had not fully destroyed the Iranian facilities and had only set its nuclear program back by “a few months.”

Trump quickly lashed out at the journalists who authored those stories. He demanded that CNN fire one reporter, Natasha Bertrand, “like a dog,” and described the Times reporters as “BAD AND SICK PEOPLE.” And Hannity, in turn, joined in Trump’s attacks on the press. 

The Fox host reiterated on June 25, 2025, that the president had taken “a decisive action to obliterate Iran's nuclear program” and “eliminate the nuclear threat from Iran,” and mocked Bertrand as “a fake news CNN reporter” who “now triumphantly claims that the president's strikes did not obliterate Iran's nuclear sites at all.”

And the following night, Hannity’s “top story” was how “Democrats and the legacy media mob” had been “blatantly rooting against our military, our country” by “proudly touting a ridiculous claim that the U.S. strikes, I'm talking about the massive 14 bunker buster bombs against Iran's nuclear facilities, were somehow a failure.”

He added that “the Department of Defense released a visual to help members of the legacy media mob understand how America's massive 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs were able to obliterate Iranians' heavily fortified nuclear facilities.”

Eight months later, Hannity is telling his audience that the existence of the Iranian nuclear program justifies U.S. military strikes on the country. The throughline is Hannity’s ongoing support for bombing Middle Eastern countries — and his apparent willingness to go along with whatever the president says.