This week marks six months since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran.
During this time, US President Donald Trump has published at least 319 posts on his social media platform Truth Social that mention Iran, roughly one every 14 hours.
Read in sequence, these posts, or “truths” as they are known on the platform, chronicle how the war was announced, prosecuted, declared victory, negotiated, and then resumed, all in the president’s own words.
Al Jazeera analyzed these posts. This is what we found.
From February 28 to August 25, Trump posted at least 4,189 times on Truth Social, averaging 24 posts per day, or one post per hour. 1 in 13 mentions of Iran – 319 total posts, or 1 post every 14 hours.
Although he posted at all times, the times when he posted the most about Iran were 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (13:00 to 16:00 GMT), which corresponds to mornings in Washington and evenings in Tehran.
The word cloud below provides a snapshot of the most commonly used terms. “Iran” has the highest number of responses at 510, more than three times as many as the next word. But the two that follow are his own name and his own country, not Iran’s leader or its nuclear program.
President Trump has referred to himself as “President Donald J. Trump” or “President DJT” 221 times, more times than he has mentioned the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear weapons, or Israel.
His sign-off, “Thank you for your attention on this matter,” closes one in four posts.
Before the war: “Let’s make a deal!”
In the weeks leading up to February 28th, Iran was mentioned occasionally, appearing in 17 posts, approximately once every three days from January 1st to February 27th.
The message combined hard-line threats and transactional diplomacy. President Trump praised Iranian leaders for canceling more than 800 scheduled hangings and expressed support for anti-regime protesters. He also threatened to impose 25% tariffs on countries doing business with Iran and repeatedly urged Tehran to negotiate, declaring: “Get a deal!”
Then, on January 28, it was announced that a “massive armada is heading towards Iran.”
Over the next month, the messages escalated the threat of force and mentioned several times the June 2025 U.S. military operation, Operation Midnight Hammer, that targeted and caused significant damage to Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities toward the end of a 12-day war with Israel.
February 28: “Massive Combat Operation”
At 1:35 a.m. ET (6:35 GMT) on February 28, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), at the direction of the President of the United States, announced the start of Operation Epic Fury.
Fifty-five minutes later, at 7:30 GMT, US President Donald Trump posted an eight-minute video on Truth Social providing details of the US’s “massive combat operation” in Iran.
Later that night, President Trump posted, “One of the most evil people in history, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead,” referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has led Iran since 1989.
Over the next two weeks, President Trump posted 40 more times, insisting he was right to launch the attack and ruling out any settlement other than “unconditional surrender!”
The Strait of Hormuz, which it will control for the next five months, was not mentioned until March 10.
On March 13, President Trump announced that CENTCOM had “completely obliterated all military targets on Iran’s crown jewel Kharg Island,” adding that he had chosen not to destroy the island’s oil infrastructure “for common sense reasons.”
March 14: “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capabilities.”
On March 14, two weeks after the war began, President Trump posted, “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capabilities.”
President Trump spent much of the rest of March and April cataloging the destruction and notifying Iran of the deadline.
He announced attacks on Kharg Island, bridges and power plants, set a 48-hour and 10-day ultimatum on the Strait of Hormuz, and reiterated that Iran’s navy, air force and leadership were “disappeared.”
In between threats, he attacked NATO, France, the United Kingdom, the Democratic Party (which he repeatedly refers to as “Democrats”), and the “fake news” media.
April 7th: “The entire civilization will perish tonight.”
On April 7, President Trump announced a “final” attack on Iran, warning that “the entire civilization will perish tonight.” It never came. Ten hours and 26 minutes later, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir asked them to refrain from action and said they had agreed to a two-week ceasefire on the condition that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
April 12: “All ships blocked”
On the morning of April 12, President Trump posted an article suggesting a naval blockade as “the president’s trump card if Iran does not yield.” Hours later, he announced that “the United States Navy, the best in the world, will begin the process of blockading any ships attempting to enter or exit the Strait of Hormuz.”
The naval blockade, which he later dubbed the “wall of steel,” became the only tool he never relinquished.
April 20: “Israel never encouraged me to go to war with Iran.”
On April 20, President Trump posted, “Israel has never approached me for war with Iran.”
However, when it comes to wars jointly started by the two countries, he writes about Israel very little, appearing only 32 times, less than once in every 10 posts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has only been nominated twice.
The next day, Pakistan asked President Trump to extend the ceasefire. He agreed, but the blockade continued. He reiterated that Iran is losing $500 a day as a result of the blockade.
The next three weeks are mostly expendable. Around 4 a.m. on April 29, President Trump posted, “Iran is now reporting to us that it is in ‘collapse mode,'” calling for the Strait to be opened before posting an image of himself holding an AI-generated assault rifle.
May 3: “Project Freedom begins Monday morning.”
On May 3, President Trump announced Project Freedom, a U.S. naval operation to escort ships from uninvolved nations through the straits, but three days later he suspended the operation “at the request of Pakistan and other countries.”
From May to June, the war was negotiated and conducted in public.
On May 18, President Trump announced that he had called off the planned attack at the request of Gulf leaders. Five days later, he spoke by phone with the same leaders and officials from Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain and negotiated a peace memorandum before posting from the Oval Office. Israel did not answer the phone. President Trump said he spoke separately with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
For the next four weeks, the war will be waged by blockade rather than by air, with President Trump laying out the terms on May 29 and later describing Iran as a “failed nation” that cannot pay for its military.
On June 11, President Trump promised to attack Iran “very hard tonight,” only to cancel hours later.
June 14: “The agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran is complete.”
On June 14, President Trump declared the deal complete and ordered the world’s ships to start their engines. On the same day, he criticized Israel’s attack on Beirut, saying it “should not have happened.”
The deal quickly began to unravel. On June 26, between two posts about how well his approval ratings were, President Trump said that Iran had fired at least four drones at ships in the Straits, one of which crashed into the deck of a cargo ship.
Two days later, U.S. military aircraft attacked Iran’s missile depot and coastal radar “in yet another violation of the ceasefire agreement.” President Trump concluded his post by saying, “There may come a time when we will no longer be rational and we will be forced to carry out militarily the work we have successfully begun. Then the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist! President DJT.”
On July 8, President Trump posted an image of a fire in Chabahar, southeastern Iran, reprinted from a pro-Israel open source intelligence account, saying it was “retaliation for yesterday’s Iranian bombing of a ship.”
July 10: “The ceasefire is over!”
On July 10, President Trump wrote that the ceasefire was “over.” Three days later, the lockdown was reinstated. In his words, “We are reinstating the blockade of Iran.” On July 22, he established a rule that the United States would destroy “one bridge or power plant” every time Iran shelled a ship in the Strait. On August 2, he called off another planned attack, this time at the request of Iran and regional countries.
August 10: “Donald Trump won the Iran war.”
On August 10, President Trump posted a link to an article with the headline, “Donald Trump Won the Iran War.”
By August, the war had become an economic one. The 60-day memorandum of understanding had expired and nothing could replace it. President Trump said he would declare the Straits US “territory,” and on August 19 announced “the most devastating economic operation ever waged against any country,” threatening any country that provides a financial lifeline to Iran.
In the President’s own words, in 32,478 words, six months of war came to the nation one post at a time.
