Trump Claims US Can do ‘Whatever We Want’ in Iran: ‘We’re Roaming Free Over Tehran’
President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. can do “whatever we want” in Iran and is “roaming free over Tehran.”
The president took questions from the media on Tuesday after former Senator Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
One reporter asked if the president would be sending his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who holds the unofficial position of the administration’s “special peace envoy,” and Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, to do direct negotiations with Iranian officials.
In response, Trump said Kushner, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are engaged in ongoing negotiations with Iranian officials who “would like to make a deal.”
“We have a number of people doing it,” Trump said of negotiations. “And the other side, I can tell you, would like to make a deal. And who wouldn’t if you were there? Look, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their communications are gone—that’s the biggest problem, it’s very hard to communicate, them between themselves. All their antiaircraft is gone, most of their missiles are gone. We either shot them or they shot them and don’t have them anymore, they’re down to a trickle. Pretty much everything they have is gone. Can you name one thing that is not gone? Or can you name one thing that is doing well?”
Trump went on to dismiss claims that Iran and the U.S. are “tied” in the war.
“If you read the papers, you think we’re tied, you think we’re in a tough battle,” he said. “We are roaming free over Tehran—the city, Tehran, as opposed to Iran. We are roaming free. We can do whatever we want.”
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. officials cautioned that a decision to put boots on the ground in Iran had not yet been made.
The president rounded out his answer by saying the U.S. had the “privilege” to shoot down an electric plant in Iran on Tuesday but did not act.
“As you know, today we were going to have the privilege of shooting down a very big electric generation plant, one of the biggest in the world, and one shot in the right location ends the plant, it collapses,” he said. “And we held off based on the fact that we’re negotiating.”
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