US President, Donald Trump has said that the US would continue its campaign in Iran.
Speaking during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said, “The big scale hitting goes now.” He asserted, “They’re going to be in for a lot of hurt,” adding, “first we have to finish off the military.”
Trump stated that the US has “knocked out” some of Iran’s forces and systems.
“They have no navy. It’s been knocked out. They have no air force. It’s been knocked out. They have no air detection, that’s been knocked out. Their radar has been knocked out. And, just about everything has been knocked out.”
Donald Trump
Trump refuted that Israel forced hand on timing of Iran strike. “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office meeting with Merz.
The Trump administration’s shifting rationale for launching joint strikes with Israel against Iran is spurring criticism, including some from Trump’s MAGA base, that the White House was dragged into the conflict by Israel.
Some prominent allies of Trump stepped up their criticism that the US was following Israel’s lead after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the US decided to strike because, “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.”
Also, Trump said that when it comes to new leaders for Iran, “the people we had in mind are dead.”
The President told reporters at the White House that in addition to that group of people that he said the US had been eying for leadership, “We have another group. They may be dead also.” Trump said there is a “third wave” coming in but “we don’t know those people.”
The US President told reporters that “someone from within” Iranian regime might be best choice to take power once the US-Israel military campaign is completed.
In an exchange in the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump said that Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown Prince of Iran’s last shah, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.
“He looks like a very nice person, but it would seem to me that somebody that’s there that’s currently popular, if there’s such a person … we have people like that.”
Donald Trump
Trump noted that “some people like” Pahlavi but that he was not someone the administration had thought about too much as Iran’s next ruler.
Additionally, the US President acknowledged that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the US remains engaged in the ongoing Middle East conflict — yet argued that prices would drop once the war ends.
“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before.”
Donald Trump
According to the American Automobile Association, the average price for a gallon of gasoline jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States.
Trump revived his complaints about the UK’s deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, despite his administration previously supporting the move.
The remote Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base.“The U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have,” he said.
He also criticized the British for their windmills and immigration policies and said they need to open up drilling in the North Sea.
Merz Hopes For Post-war Iran
Merz said during his visit with Trump at the Oval Office that Germany is “looking forward to the day after” the Iran war is over.
He said that Berlin wants to work with the US about a strategy for when the current Iranian government no longer exists. “We are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do,” Merz said.
“And this is this is important not just for the Americans. This is extremely important for Europe and extremely important for Israel and their security.”
Friedrich Merz
Merz said during a visit at the White House, “We are, on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away.”
Earlier, the German Chancellor said that “we are hoping that the Israeli and the American army are doing the right things to bring this to an end and to have really a new government in place.”
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