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Auburn Tigers men’s basketball head coach Bruce Pearl fired off a reminder to his followers after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. military had struck three Iranian nuclear sites.
Pearl, who is the chairman of U.S. Israel Education Association along with his duties as a college basketball coach, thanked God for protecting U.S. troops as they made the daring flight over Iran to bomb its nuclear facilities and wrote that the U.S. is not at war with Iran.
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Head coach Bruce Pearl of the Auburn Tigers reacts during practice ahead of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena on March 21, 2024, in Spokane, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
“Thank you God for your protection over our troops. We are not at war with Iran, we are at war with Iran’s military nuclear program,” Pearl wrote on X. “The President wants peace, now the ball is in the court of the Iranian leadership. Iran’s terrorist reach has been diminished but still present.”
Pearl has been a staunch supporter of Israel, and his voice in his support has grown since Hamas’ terror attacks on the nation on Oct. 7, 2023.
Earlier in the week, he expressed support for the president as he weighed potential strikes on Iran.
“We can go back and talk about 1982 in Lebanon and all those U.S. Marines that were murdered,” he said on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.” “We can talk about Oct. 7, where 45 Americans were killed. And they abducted, you know, six or seven more and executed them before Israel rescued them.
TRUMP ‘STARTED WORLD WAR III’ WITH US STRIKES ON IRANIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES, EX-NFL STAR SAYS
March 19, 2025; Lexington, KY: Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl speaks with the media during NCAA Tournament First Round Practice at Rupp Arena. (Aaron Doster-Imagn Images)
“This has been going on since 1979, and it is about to become a safer place, a non-nuclear Iran. And without having the money to be able to do what they have been doing, the world is going to be a safer place.”
“If the Middle East gets safer and stronger, look at what a dynamic country Israel is. Look at all the unicorns that are there. Look at all the high tech and development. Look at all the wealth. If you began to spread that to some of these other Middle Eastern countries, who are they going to partner with? The United States? Russia? China? It’s going to be the U.S., because Donald Trump has led the way to create peace and prosperity for everybody in the region.”
President Donald J. Trump in The Situation Room, June 21, 2025 (The White House via X)
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Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. military had “completed our very successful attack” on the Iranian facilities. The U.S. targeted Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. He wrote that U.S. aircraft had dropped a “full payload of BOMBS” on the nuclear installations.
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.
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