Trump pushes allies to assist with Strait of Hormuz, says Iranian regime is ‘obliterated’
President Donald Trump said Monday that Operation Epic Fury, now in its third week, has “obliterated” Iran, as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck more than 7,000 targets across the…
President Donald Trump said Monday that Operation Epic Fury, now in its third week, has “obliterated” Iran, as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck more than 7,000 targets across the country.
“We’ve achieved a 90% reduction in their ballistic missile launches and a 95% reduction in drone attacks,” Trump said at a White House news conference ahead of a meeting with the Trump-Kennedy Center board.
Iran’s “Air Force is gone. The Navy is gone. Many, many ships have been sunk,” Trump said. “Anti-aircraft is decimated. Their radar is gone, and their leaders are gone. Other than that, they’re doing quite well.”
It’s unknown whether Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is dead or alive, Trump noted.
“A lot of people are saying that he’s badly disfigured. They’re saying that he lost his leg, one leg, and he’s been hurt very badly. Other people are saying he’s dead; nobody is saying he’s 100% healthy,” he said.
His comments follow an NBC News interview over the weekend in which Trump said he didn’t know if Khamenei was “even alive” since “so far, nobody’s been able to show him.” If he is alive, Trump said, he should “surrender.”
U.S. military operations are “aggressively dismantling Iran’s defense industrial base,” including its ability to rebuild missiles, drone capability, and its ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said Monday, noting that for years, Iran has used the strait as a weapon.
“We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours” to “come and help us with the strait,” the president noted, taking a swipe at allies he doesn’t view as sufficiently engaged.
“Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic,” Trump said. “And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”
Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, disruptions to critical oil infrastructure and a major decrease in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has led to a surge in oil and retail gasoline prices. Oil has spiked from around $70 a barrel to about $100 a barrel, NPR reports, while gas is on average up by nearly 80 cents a gallon from a month ago. Top oil industry experts have predicted the energy crisis is likely to worsen as prices continue to rise.
“When this is over, oil prices are going to go down very, very rapidly, so is inflation, so is everything else,” Trump said, noting that “much more important than short term – even long-term oil prices – you can’t let the most violent, vicious country in the last 50 years have a nuclear weapon.”
Meanwhile, Venezuela has been a “tremendous oil source,” supplying “millions” of barrels of oil, Trump said, calling the bilateral relationship “fantastic.”
Turning his attention to home, Trump touted his renovations to the East Room and said the Trump-Kennedy Center is making “incredible strides to restore the true purpose” of the institution. He also praised his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, whose early-stage breast cancer diagnosis was also announced Monday.
“She’s an amazing person, an amazing fighter,” he said, adding she is receiving immediate treatment. “The prognosis there is excellent, beyond excellent.”
