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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

I'm Greg Myrie. I cover national security. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.

And today on the show, why did the U.S. strike Iran and what happens next?

The Trump administration has given a series of explanations over the last several days as to why military action was necessary, starting with President Trump's State of the Union address.

After midnight hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program in a particular nuclear weapons. Yet they continue

starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start all over again and are at this

moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions. And a reminder that Midnight Hammer was the

operation last summer that the president said completely and totally obliterated Iran's nuclear program.

But then after the U.S. started this mission in Iran, the messaging shifted.

Here is President Trump on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.

It will be totally, again, obliterated.

We are going to annihilate their Navy.

We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region

or the world.

For almost 50 years, these wicked extremists have been attacking the United States while

chanting the slogan, death to America or death to Israel or both.

They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror.

We are the world's greatest and most powerful nation so we can do something about what they do.

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