White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt held a 29-minute briefing Wednesday — the day after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran — framing the agreement not as a compromise, but as a decisive triumph born of overwhelming military force.

“This is a victory for the United States of America that the president and our incredible military made happen,” Leavitt told reporters in the James Brady Briefing Room, adding that U.S. military objectives were not only met but “exceeded” over the 38-day Operation Epic Fury.

Leavitt delivered an extensive rundown of U.S. and allied military achievements over the 38-day operation. The figures she cited were striking: over 13,000 targets struck across Iran; more than 450 ballistic missile sites destroyed; 800 drone facilities neutralized; and Iran’s navy — once comprising over 150 vessels across 16 warship classes — completely annihilated, with zero submarines remaining and 97 percent of Iran’s naval mines eliminated.

Iran’s air force had been flying 30 to 100 sorties daily before the operation. U.S. forces struck Iranian command-and-control structures more than 2,000 times. Leavitt paused to honor 13 American service members killed during Operation Epic Fury, stating the nation would “never forget them.”

The ceasefire’s survival hinges entirely on Iran’s complete, immediate, and unrestricted reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Leavitt disputed Iranian state media reports that the waterway remained closed, telling reporters the U.S. had observed an “uptick in traffic.”

Leavitt addressed widespread media coverage of an Iranian 10-point ceasefire proposal, clarifying that Tehran had initially submitted a plan the administration deemed “fundamentally unserious and unacceptable” — one that President Trump promptly discarded. Iran then returned with a revised, condensed proposal that Trump found to be a “workable basis” aligning with the administration’s own 15-point framework.

In one of the briefing’s major announcements, Leavitt confirmed that President Trump is dispatching a high-level U.S. negotiating team to Islamabad, Pakistan, for closed-door peace talks. VP Vance will head the delegation, joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential advisor Jared Kushner, with the first round of talks set for Saturday morning local time.

Reporters pressed Leavitt repeatedly on Trump’s pre-ceasefire warning that failure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would result in “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” She defended the remark without reservation.

When a reporter suggested Trump may have lost the “moral high ground,” Leavitt fired back: “The insinuation by anyone in this room that Iran somehow has the moral high ground is insulting considering the atrocities they have committed against our people and our military over the past five decades.”

Turning to the transatlantic alliance, Leavitt said Trump believes NATO “was tested and they failed” by not adequately supporting the U.S.–Israel operation or meeting long-standing defense spending commitments. Trump is expected to have a “frank and candid conversation” with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and is actively considering reduced U.S. support or withdrawal from the alliance.

On Trump’s remark that “Cuba is next,” Leavitt clarified it refers to the communist regime’s anticipated collapse from within — driven by economic weakness and domestic discontent — not imminent military action. On the domestic front, she highlighted the Working Families Tax Cut and celebrated the first conviction under the Take It Down Act, landmark legislation championed by First Lady Melania Trump to combat nonconsensual AI-generated explicit images.