President Trump felt Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave him “the middle finger” when Iran shrugged off his push for diplomacy, solidifying his decision to bomb Tehran’s nuclear facilities, according to a new report. 

In the final moments before Saturday’s airstrike, Trump’s frustration with Tehran reached its limit, with thee president sure the attack against the Fordow fuel enrichment plant would go off without a hitch — despite the flood of reports that he was still undecided. 

“In the end, it was everything. The timing was right,” a Trump confidant told Axios. “The Ayatollah gave Trump and the U.S. the middle finger. And that came with a price.”

Trump had warned Tehran to agree to a new nuclear deal last week lest there be consequences. Turkey was reportedly working to put together a meeting between the Trump administration and Iranian officials. 

Trump even offered to go himself and meet Iran’s supreme leader if it would mean the talks could go forward, according to reports.

The talks, however, never materialized, as Khamenei was allegedly deep in hiding amid Israel’s bombardment in Tehran, according to Axios. 

Without a word from Tehran, Trump said he would make his decision “within the next two weeks” on whether to strike Iran, which turned out to be a fakeout to conceal the fact that he had already made his choice.  

US drops $500M bombs on Iran

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• The US military dropped 14 “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment plant Saturday night and on two other key sites.
• Prior to the airstrikes, Israel initiated extensive attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and military. 
• Satellite images show how part of the mountain protecting the facility was completely obliterated.
• This marks the first time that the US used the 15-ton GBU-57 bunker buster bombs in anger.
• “Each and every member of the UN must be alarmed over this extremely dangerous, lawless and criminal behavior,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said following the attack.

Less than 30 hours after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt relayed the statement to reporters, Trump had quietly ordered the assault, with only a few members of his inner circle aware of what was going to happen. 

Despite the misdirection, members of the Pentagon and US Central Command reportedly feared Trump gave too much away with his ominous warnings last week for people to evacuate Tehran and that something “much bigger” was on its way, The New York Times reported. 

To keep the deception going, officials deployed a second group of B-2 bombers to the Pacific to throw off anyone monitoring the airspace and leave them questioning when and where an airstrike could come from. 

Any trepidation Trump had with the operation was swept aside by Republican hawks who assured Trump that military action was the way to go after diplomacy with Iran seemingly failed. 

Israel also assured the president that its attacks on Tehran allowed the Jewish state to take air superiority in the region, lowering the risk for the US pilots. 

Trump’s decision was also fueled by the positive coverage he was receiving over Israel’s successful attacks on Tehran. 

Rather than focusing on staying out of another conflict in the Middle East, Trump saw the operation as a way to assert dominance and earn credit for possibly dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported.  

“Our country is hot as a pistol,” Trump touted. “Six months ago, our country was cold as ice. It was dead.”