President Donald Trump didn’t take kindly to journalists asking about his inconsistent messaging over his war on Iran.
Trump, 79, blew up at reporters, hurling personal insults over questions about his war in the Middle East following a healthcare event in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason kicked off the chain reaction by asking the president how long he is willing to wait for a unified proposal from Iran.
“Don’t rush me. Don’t rush me, Jeff,” Trump interrupted before the reporter could finish his question. “Guys like you, you want to say, ‘Ohhhh.’ So we were in Vietnam, like, for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years.”
Trump named a few more conflicts, including the Korean War and World War II, before saying, “I’ve been doing this for six weeks, and their military is totally defeated.”
A CBS News report published on Wednesday found that Iran’s military is more capable than Washington and the Pentagon have let on. Citing U.S. officials familiar with intelligence on the matter, the report found that about half of the country’s missile stockpile and launch systems were still intact since the ceasefire began earlier this month, as well as about 60 percent of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval forces.
The president rambled on about his military prowess for several minutes, naming figures from his Truth Social rant earlier in the day, before another reporter fact-checked him on his timeline.
“It’s been eight weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran. You had initially said it would be four to six weeks, and it would be over,” the reporter said.
“Well, I hoped that. But I also took a little break, I gave them a break, and, remember this,” the near-octagenarian replied. “I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now.”
“I mean, the way you asked that question, yeah, I did say that. I thought it would take four to six weeks, and I was right,” he added. “Because at the end of six weeks—at the end of four weeks—their military was decimated.”
Trump said that Tehran had agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz, but that he himself had rejected the deal because the country would “make $500 million a day.”
“I don’t want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I’m the one that kept it closed,” he said.
Another reporter then asked the president what he says to Americans concerned about gas prices, which have skyrocketed since the Strait of Hormuz closure, and when the conflict will end.
“You’re a disgrace,” Trump told the female reporter. “Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam. How many years was Vietnam?”
After the president engaged in a few more minutes of condescending braggadocio, a fourth journalist, CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe, asked if Americans can expect to spend more on gas “for the foreseeable future.”
“For a little while,” Trump said. “And you know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon.”
The president then rambled about the stock market being at “an all-time high right now” before telling the reporter, who tried to interject about driving prices down, “Can I finish my question, wise guy?”
Trump’s war on Iran, which has resulted in the deaths of 13 American service members and hundreds more injured, has stretched into its eighth week, with no immediate end in sight. On Tuesday, Trump extended a fragile ceasefire indefinitely after claiming hours before that he would drop “lots of bombs” if it expired.
On Thursday, the president ordered that his naval forces “shoot and kill” small mine-laying boats in the Strait of Hormuz.
