Topline
President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “hit” Iran “hard” again today, telling reporters in the Oval Office the U.S. was “close” to a peace deal with the country—just hours after he said Iran would “pay the price” for taking too long to negotiate.
Key Facts
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. was “really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers,” before disparaging his predecessors as “some very stupid presidents.”
Trump earlier lashed out against Iran on Wednesday morning, insisting the country was “all talk and no action,” and again insisted that much of its military had already been destroyed—a claim he has repeated multiple times since the war began on Feb. 28.
The threat came hours after the U.S. launched retaliatory strikes against Iran after the country allegedly shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, whose crew was soon rescued.
Iran then retaliated by launching missiles and drones at U.S. targets in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait—strikes that each country’s military said were shot down by air defenses, the Associated Press reported.
In a later post, Trump touted the U.S. military’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, proclaiming it the “the most successful Blockade in the history of Naval Warfare,” claiming it is turning Iran into a “FAILED NATION.”
Tangent
Before ending his second post, Trump signed off with the phrase “praise be to Allah”—repeating an odd remark he made in an infamous, explicit threat on Easter Sunday. In the same message, Trump demanded the Iranians “open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell”—referring to the same waterway the U.S. is now blockading.
News Peg
Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Trump again demanded Iran sign a peace deal on his terms. “They should sign their deal, it’s a good deal. It doesn’t give them a right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon. And it’s just, tap, tap, tap, I don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump said. “I gave them a break at the request of Pakistan.”
Crucial Quote
Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, said his country would “re-assess” their ability to proceed with diplomacy with the United States after the U.S. strikes, Reuters reported citing televised remarks. “Any diplomatic process requires a minimum stable environment,” Baghaei said.
Key Background
The U.S. and Iran have been working on negotiating a peace deal for about two months after a tense ceasefire was declared in April. The president has insisted Iran was close to signing a deal at multiple points over the last few weeks, and even argued that the conflict was “terminated” in May in order to sidestep obtaining Congressional authority to continue conducting the war.