President Donald Trump provided a few updates on Operation Epic Fury on Monday.
From the sound of it, the Iranian war should end soon, way before the administration’s 4-5 week estimate.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump told CBS News. “[Iran has] no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones.”
It didn’t take long for the U.S. and Israel to wipe out Iran’s military.
“If you look, they have nothing left,” Trump added. “There’s nothing left in a military sense.”
Trump recently said he has to participate in the process of picking Iran’s new leader.
Apparently, Iran did not receive the message because the country chose Mojtaba Khamenei as his father’s successor.
Trump does not have a message for the latest Khamenei leader.
Then there’s the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait, but it has been silent since the war began.
Could the U.S. take over the Strait of Hormuz? It’s possible:
Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the global oil supply flows, has effectively ground to a halt.The president said the U.S. “could do a lot” about the strait and threatened Iran if it inhibits the waterway. “They’ve shot everything they have to shoot, and they better not try anything cute or it’s going to be the end of that country. … If they do anything bad, that would be the end of Iran and you’d never hear the name again.” The president also said the strait is open now and claimed ships have been entering the strait, but said he is still “thinking about taking it over.”
Trump backed up his comments when he spoke at the Republican Members Conference from his Doral, FL, golf club.
“We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil,” said Trump. “And I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.”
Trump gave props to our military before stressing that the Iranian War is meant to be short-term.
Trump touted the victories so far in Iran, noting the destruction of the military and elimination of many who could take over the country.
While Trump said that the war is “very complete,” he asserted that the U.S. won’t stop until the enemy is defeated:
As we’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force, Iran’s drone and missile capability is being utterly demolished. The Navy is gone. It’s all lying at the bottom of the ocean. 46 ships. Can you believe it?In fact, I got a little upset with our people. I said, “What quality of ship?” “Excellent, sir. Top of the line.” I said, “Why did we just capture the ship? We’re going to use it. Why did we sink him?” He said, “It’s more fun to sink them.” He said, “They like sinking him better.” They say it’s safer to sink them. I guess it’s probably true.But think of it. We knocked out 46…it actually took three and a half days. Their terrorist leaders are gone, or counting down the minutes until they will be gone. Think of it. We had leaders and they’re gone. Then we had new leaders and they’re gone. And now nobody has any idea who the people are that are going to be the head of the country and we will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.
Trump reiterated the success in Iran and timeline:
.@USAToday’s @Fran_Chambers: “On Iran, you called it an excursion. You said it would be over soon. Are you thinking this week it will be over?”Trump: “No, but soon.”Chambers: “Are you talking about days?”Trump: “I think soon.”Chambers: “Okay. And with respect —”Trump: “Very soon. Look, everything they have is gone, including their leadership. In fact, there are two levels of leadership. And even actually, as it turns out, more than that. But two levels of leadership are gone. Most people have never even heard about the leaders that they’re talking about, so it’s obviously been very, very powerful, very effective.”
Trump also said “enough” is when Iran no never develop a nuclear bomb:
Reporter: “You said earlier that we’ve already won in many ways [in Iran], but we haven’t won enough. What do you consider enough? What’s your baseline for this conflict?”Trump: “Where they’re not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon, where they’ll look at that man and some other people from the administration and say, all right, we’re not going to do it. They were not willing to say that. And when Steve [Witkoff] called up and he said that to me, I said, well, here we go. Let’s do it the hard way. But the hard way, I think, is probably the easy way, when, basically, I can see that they will no longer have any capacity whatsoever for a very long period of time of developing weaponry that could be used against the United States, Israel, or any of our allies. We have great allies in the Middle East, great countries that are allies and they were staying out of it until they got hit. Some day, they’ll have to do a story. Why did he do that? Why did they do that? But they were going to hit them. If I didn’t hit them first, they were going to hit our allies first. I believe upon information and belief, but I believe that he was going to — he was — they were going to take over the Middle East. They were looking to take over the Middle East. Now, had Operation Midnight Hammer not taken place, that was definite because they would have had a nuclear weapon within a matter of weeks, but that took place. That was a setback. But look at the number of missiles they were able to buy and make over the last six months, and those missiles were aimed at various countries. And when you look at 1,000 — over 1,000 missiles shot at, like, UAE, they were looking to take over the Middle East. We got there first. Lucky. I’ll tell you what. The Middle East and those countries, very rich countries, are very lucky that I was President instead of somebody else.”
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