President Donald Trump has said there is “practically nothing left to target” in Iran and that the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Tehran will end soon.
Speaking briefly to Axios on Wednesday, the president insisted the attacks were making progress.
“The war is going great,” he said. “We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period.”
Trump added that Iran had posted a threat not just to Israel but to other Gulf states across the region: “They were after the rest of the Middle East. They are paying for 47 years of death and destruction they caused. This is payback. They will not get off that easy.”
The commander-in-chief also said he had the power to end the conflict whenever he chose, on his own terms: “Any time I want it to end, it will end.”
The president was speaking as both sides continued to exchange hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, driving up prices across the globe.
Trump told Axios that U.S. forces had destroyed at least 16 mine-laying boats in the strait as part of efforts to clear the way so that oil tankers can safely resume their deliveries and ease the pressure on global markets.
His latest remarks about the conflict somewhat contradict other messaging from his administration, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday night, “this is only just the beginning” of the U.S. fight with Iran.
On Tuesday, Hegseth declared at a Pentagon press conference that the U.S. was “crushing the enemy.”
“Iran stands alone and they are badly losing,” Hegseth told reporters, describing the Iranian regime as “barbaric savages” who are “desperate and scrambling.”
To date, the U.S. has struck more than 5,000 targets in Iran and sunk more than 50 Iranian vessels, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same event.
Trump previously invited premature hopes about the conflict nearing its end, on Monday, when he said: “I think the war is very complete, pretty much… They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force… If you look, they have nothing left.”
His mixed messaging about Operation Epic Fury — which commenced in the early hours of February 28 — particularly regarding its underlying motive and likely duration, has been the source of consternation to many, notably Democrats on Capitol Hill who have emerged from classified briefings throwing up their hands in frustration and claiming the administration has “no plan.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was even asked on Tuesday by CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes whether Trump was “making up” a claim that Iran would have attacked the U.S. within a week had he not given the green light to the operation when he did.
“The president is not making anything up, Nancy,” Leavitt answered testily.
Since the initial burst of rocket strikes on Iran 12 days ago — in which the theocratic regime’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed — Tehran has struck back against U.S. and Israeli military bases across the Gulf, killing at least seven U.S. servicemembers in the process.
Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been chosen to succeed him by a clerical assembly, but it has emerged that he too was injured in the strikes at an earlier stage.
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