Photo: Alamy
Speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump discussed the developing situation between the United States and Iran, as the two nations have traded blows this week amid an increasingly fractured – but apparently still intact – ceasefire.
“We hit them hard yesterday,” the president told reporters. “And we’re going to hit them again hard today…and we’ll see what happens with a deal. We were really close to a deal – but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers, because, you know what? They dealt with some very stupid presidents, I have to say that, I’m embarrassed to say it. Some very stupid people were sitting here.”
The escalation between the U.S. and Iran was spurred after a U.S. Army Apache helicopter was shot down off the coast of Oman this week. The two crew members were rescued, but the aircraft, according to the U.S. Central Command, was lost at sea.
President Trump said the attacks were perpetrated by Iran and vowed retaliation on Tuesday. Per CENTCOM, the U.S. military completed “self-defense strikes” against Iran shortly after, “in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter.”
“CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets,” the unified command said in a statement posted to X. “The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.”
As reported by RSBN, U.S. airstrikes targeted an estimated 20 Iranian military sites in places like Goruk and Qeshm Island – but this also prompted a reported response from Iran, which, in turn, launched missiles and drones toward Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.
Negotiations with Iran have been notoriously difficult and protracted amid the ongoing ceasefire, which has been in place since early April.
President Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that Iran’s military might was largely degraded, noting that the Iranian Navy had been wiped out, along with its Air Force, and that its drone and missile capabilities had been degraded.
“I think they’re going to make a deal, but we’re going to find out,” he said.