President Donald Trump repeatedly said on Monday that Operation Epic Fury, his military campaign in Iran, is a “short-term excursion.”
The president hosted Republican lawmakers at his private club in Doral, Florida, for the House GOP’s policy retreat Monday. At the start of his remarks, Trump addressed the war with Iran.
“I think we had the best first year of any president ever,” Trump said. “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil, and I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion.
“In my first term, we rebuilt our military, and I didn’t know I’d be using it so much in the second term, but we have a military like no other as not even close,” he said. “We’re the strongest military anywhere on Earth, and now everybody understands it. Together, with our overwhelming display of technical skill and military force, Iran’s drone and missile capability is being utterly demolished.”
Later in his remarks, after recounting the progress of the military campaign, the president claimed that the U.S. “wrapped the hell out of” Iran.
“I don’t know when they cry uncle, but they should have cried it two days ago, right?,” the president said. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all.”
Earlier in the day, U.S. stocks floundered amid significant spikes in the global oil market. However, those trends reversed after Trump told CBS News that the United States is “very far” ahead of the initial, weekslong timeline for concluding Operation Epic Fury.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” he said. “They have no navy, no communications. They’ve got no Air Force.”
TRUMP SAYS THERE WILL BE NO DEAL WITH IRAN OUTSIDE OF ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER’
You can watch Trump’s remarks in full below.
