Prominent Trump critics laud president's decision to strike Iran nuclear sites

Some prominent critics of President Donald Trump praised the president's call to strike Iran's nuclear sites over the weekend, such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who told CNN on Sunday that it was "better late than never."

"Well, let me say this unequivocally: I think President Trump made the right decision for America to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program. And I think we’re on the verge of potentially seeing regime change in Iran as part of that. I think this is a huge change in the Middle East. It was a decisive action. It was the right thing to do. I thought somebody should do it for a long time. But better late than never," Bolton told CNN's Kasie Hunt on Sunday during "State of the Union."

Trump revealed on Saturday that the U.S. had launched a successful strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The president has called for peace in the region and has said Iran's nuclear sites were "totally obliterated."

"Well, he said up to two weeks," Bolton told Hunt, who asked him if the two-week timeline initially given by the White House was a ruse. "And I thought that was a pretty, pretty clear giveaway. As I say, I would have done this a long time ago. We‘ll see what happens now. This is only day one, and I think how how Iran responds to this, if they‘re foolish enough to attack American positions, American personnel in the Middle East or anywhere around the world. What happened overnight would just seem like the beginning.

 Former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at a panel hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran – U.S. Representative Office (NCRI-US) at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on August 17, 2022 in Washington, DC.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Former GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger said Trump made the right call in a post on social media, arguing it was a "good call by the president."

Kinzinger notably spoke at the DNC and endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, a fierce Trump critic, wrote he made a "courageous and correct decision that deserves respect, no matter how one feels about this president, while fellow Times columnist David French also said it was the "right decision" on social media. 

"This is a perilous moment, but acting decisively to stop Iran’s march to a bomb is the right decision. Iran is weakened. Now is the time," he wrote.

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In a follow-up post, French added, "there should be a congressional vote under the War Powers Resolution. This is a grave moment, and Congress has the authority to declare war and to authorize long-term military action. Congress needs to exercise its authority."

Democratic and a few GOP lawmakers have criticized Trump's decision to bomb Iran's nuclear sites, as Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called the move unconstitutional.

"Trump struck Iran without any authorization of Congress. We need to immediately return to DC and vote on @RepThomasMassie and my War Powers Resolution to prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war," Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., posted on social media.  

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a frequent critic of the president, told ABC's Jon Karl during "This Week" on Sunday that he wasn't surprised by Trump's decision. 

Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, said the president "deserves an enormous amount of credit." (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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"I think the president deserves an enormous amount of credit. This is against-type for him. I’m sure it was a difficult decision. But what I think his analysis was he cannot live with a nuclear weapon Iran. And Israel did all the heavy lifting, they wiped out many of their air defenses, really severely damaged them in what they’ve been doing over the last week and a half or two, and the president saw an opportunity that he might never have again," Christie said. 

"And I think we see the way we dealt with North Korea, that we missed opportunities to take them out before they became a nuclear power. I think Donald Trump looked at this and the president said, ‘I’m not going to let the same thing happen in Iran, in what is an even bigger powder keg in the world,’" he continued. 

The Atlantic's Eliot Cohen wrote on Sunday that Trump "got this one right."

"The president has made many poor decisions, but in striking Iran, he acted where his predecessors had failed," he wrote.

US Vice President JD Vance, from left, US President Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, and Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, during an address to the nation in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Saturday, June 21, 2025.  (Carlos Barria/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Multiple retired generals have said Trump's move was the right one in interviews on CNN and MSNBC. 

"I think, from a strictly military perspective, this was a decisive, bold, consequential attack. Iran was in a weakened condition. The U.S. had the technology to carry out what is probably a long-term impact on Iran's nuclear program," Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Saturday.

Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Saturday that he was impressed by the U.S. strikes against Iran's nuclear sites, praising Trump's use of "deception and trickery."