The three men and CIA Director John Ratcliffe recounted the large-scale operation that rescued two service members, including how the military was able to locate them while using deception to divert the Iranians to other areas. The president’s focus on the Hollywood-style optics of the daring mission comes against the backdrop of a public that’s increasingly skeptical about the overall mission in Iran.
“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area— the real area— engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind,” Trump said.
That the Iranians were able to take down the plane in the first place undermined the U.S.’s message about its air superiority over Iran. Trump has repeatedly recounted the idea that American planes have had virtually free reign over the skies above Tehran, for instance.
Trump said Monday that negotiations with the Iranians are ongoing and happening “in good faith.”
Yet he called the Iranians “very good bullshit artists” with stalled external communication because of destruction from strikes. He said reopening the Strait of Hormuz is a “very big priority” in those talks.
“We have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me and part of that deal is going to be, we want to have free traffic of oil and everything else,” he said, while not fully committing that a deal must include reopening the strait by Tuesday’s deadline.
Amid reports that the Iranians are considering formalizing charging tolls to allow ships to pass through the strait, the president suggested that he may be considering an unlikely proposal for the U.S. to collect the fees.
“What about us charging tolls?” he said. “I’d rather do that than let them have them, right? Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner.”
And he reiterated his threat hanging over the talks: if Iran doesn’t act, “they’re going to have no bridges, they’re going to have no power plants— stone ages, yeah.”
He got more specific on Monday, spelling out the detail of the potential destruction: “We have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again,” Trump said. “I mean, complete demolition by 12 o’clock. And it will happen over four hours if we wanted to. We don’t want that to happen.”
Attacks on energy structures could be considered a war crime but Trump pushed back on that idea.“No, not at all. I hope I don’t have to do it.”