HARPERS FERRY, W.Va.—Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought Monday to reassure the American people that the Trump administration is actively working to protect the homeland following the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
“We are continuing to evaluate every single threat and to proactively go after them before they do anything or take any activity,” Noem told The Daily Signal, when asked about the threat of Iranian terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S.
Following the U.S. targeted attack on three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, the Trump administration has warned that the threat of the activation of terrorist sleeper cells in the U.S. has never been higher.
While the threat level is high, it is not new, Noem told reporters at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new facility at the Customs and Border Protection’s Advanced Training Center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on Monday.
“We have incredible threats to this country from many nations that are enemies to the United States of America,” Noem told press. “You know, it’s not just Iran, it’s North Korea, Russia, China, consistently every single day are trying to threaten our way of life. So, my job is to do all that I can to protect our country before something bad does happen.”
The U.S. struck Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites over the weekend, dropping more than a dozen bunker-buster bombs from B-2 bombers. The bunker-buster bomb is America’s largest nonnuclear bomb. The U.S. also launched Tomahawk cruise missiles from a submarine, striking Iranian nuclear targets.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the “sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed,” adding that only the “fake news” would claim otherwise.
Satellite images show damage to Iran’s nuclear sites, but Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the press Sunday that it is too early to know the full extent of the damage on the sites.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on X on Monday that Iran will “not leave the aggression against [Iran] unanswered,” pledging to “respond to every wound on Iran’s body with faith, wisdom, and determination.”
Iran on Monday launched missiles at an American military base in Qatar in response to the U.S. attack on the Iranian nuclear sites. No American and no Qataris were killed or wounded in the attack, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday afternoon.
“I can confirm that Al Udeid Air Base was attacked by short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles originating from Iran today,” a Defense Department official told The Daily Signal Monday afternoon. “At this time, there are no reports of U.S. casualties. We are monitoring this situation closely and will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have repeatedly stated that Trump targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent a larger conflict in the future.
“President Trump did the world a favor” when he ordered the strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, Rubio said on Fox News on Sunday.
“Now, the Iranian regime should wake up and say, ‘OK, if we really want nuclear energy in our country, there’s a way to do it,‘” Rubio said. “That offer’s still there, we’re prepared to talk to them tomorrow and start working on that.”