President Donald Trump explicitly threatened on Tuesday to bomb Iran’s deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear construction site, vowing imminent and overwhelming force against a target that has remained untouched by previous campaigns. Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office, the president dismissed any capability of Tehran to respond or intercept an American attack.
"We'll be hitting that area pretty soon. And very heavily. And there's not a thing they can do about it," Trump said. The statement signals a potential expansion of direct U.S. military engagement stemming from the spiraling conflict over the Strait of Hormuz.
Strategic Target Unscathed in Previous War
The Pickaxe Mountain site, located adjacent to Iran's Natanz nuclear complex south of Tehran, survived the 12-day Operation Midnight Hammer campaign waged in 2025. While the above-ground facilities at Natanz have been repeatedly targeted by sabotage and bombing, the mountain project has continued unimpeded. Experts assess the facility is being bored to depths of at least 80 meters, which would challenge even the most powerful penetrator bombs in the American arsenal, including the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator designed to destroy deeply buried installations.
Without access granted to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the specific equipment housed within the 2.7 square kilometer site remains unverified. Administration officials suspect the hardened facility is intended to mass-produce gas centrifuges and enrich uranium entirely shielded from aerial interdiction.
Policy of Force Projection
The president's direct threat marks a departure from typical operational security. "Normally I wouldn't say that. If I thought they could do something about it, I would never say that," Trump added, reinforcing the posture of American military primacy. The administration views the permanent disablement of Iran's domestic enrichment capacity as a core national security objective to prevent a nuclear-capable adversary antithetical to American interests.
Analysts note that despite Iran's pre-war stockpiles of 60% enriched uranium, those materials are believed to remain secured at previously bombed sites, leaving the operational status of the new mountain facility as the critical unknown. The threat indicates that Pentagon planners are likely finalizing a strike package capable of delivering multiple consecutive penetrator munitions to cripple the deep subterranean complex, making good on a policy aimed at excluding foreign lobbying interests from dictating Middle East military commitments directly affecting American service members and resources.