Trump says Iran can ‘make a deal or they get annihilated’

“They have no navy,” Trump said. “They have no air force. It, it’s all, it’s, it’s gone. It’s just a question of time. If we want, we stopped. Could have gone for another few weeks it would have been over. Uh, I did that at the request of a lot of leaders that are friendly with them. Uh, it’s not going to matter for them.”

As the interview touched on a variety of topics, Trump later returned to the topic of Iran and their allegedly obliterated military. He specifically mentioned Iran’s naval fleet, its air force, and anti-aircraft weapons. 

“Like a couple of months and the navy’s gone,” Trump said. “They have 159 ships. Every single one of them is now happily floating or not floating at the bottom of the sea.”

He also mentioned Iran’s anti-aircraft weapons and how those were also taken out during military strikes in Operation Epic Fury. He brushed off the notion that Iran had rebounded a bit during the ceasefire and possibly rebuilt some of their military during this time, amid a recent New York Times report that claimed Iran “retains substantial missile capabilities.” The president wasn’t too worried about Iran’s alleged military retooling.

“They have no anti-aircraft,” Trump said. “Now, they probably have, I mean, we know everything they’ve done. They built it up a little bit. We’ll take it out in one day. It’ll all be gone.”

He also said he hoped “Iran was watching,” because U.S. intelligence reports have tracked Iran’s rebuilding efforts and that the U.S. was aware of Iran’s progress. But, again, Trump did not appear to be concerned, stating that any retooling Iran has done could be “gone in one day” in the event the U.S. resumed military strikes.

“And so they’re trying to get a few things together,” said Trump. “They have to take in some missiles from underground. We know exactly what they’re doing. It’ll all be gone in one day. Everything they’ve done for the last four weeks will be gone in one day.”