President Donald Trump declared that the United States would escalate its military campaign against Iran, stating, "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong." The remarks followed a month of U.S. air strikes that began on Feb. 28 and, according to one account, killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in their opening phase.

Trump also directed military forces toward the Strait of Hormuz, telling them, "Go to the strait and just take it." Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps retains control of the waterway. The initial strikes also killed many political figures that the White House had hoped would form a new cadre of Iranian leaders. "Most of the people we had in mind are dead," Trump said. A month of U.S. air strikes killed many Iranian leaders but did not change the Iranian regime.

According to a preliminary investigation, on the same day that U.S. forces targeted Khamenei, a bomb struck an elementary school, killing nearly two hundred people. No independent or Iranian government accounts of the school bombing or casualty figures were available.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has led the administration's periodic press briefings on the Iran war, using the slogan "maximum lethality." At those briefings, Hegseth called on Americans to pray to Jesus Christ for the military's success. Hegseth was a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend when he was picked to join the president's cabinet.

The day before Trump's address, Hegseth gave a press conference in which he recounted a recent visit to U.S. bases in the region. He relayed what service members told him they wanted: "More bombs, sir. And bigger bombs." Hegseth also commented on allied naval forces in the area, saying, "Last time I checked, there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy."

In September, months before the Iran strikes began, Hegseth addressed a gathering of senior military officials at Quantico. "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy," he told the audience. He also told the gathering, "You kill people and break things for a living."