President Donald Trump claimed his war against Iran was progressing well enough to allow him to pay a visit to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump regaled a crowd at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence and golf club last weekend—about three weeks into the conflict—with a tale of how he almost missed out on a little R&R.
“I didn’t know I was going to be here tonight. I am supposed to be prosecuting a war, but the war is going very well,” Trump, 79, claimed, according to video obtained by the liberal news and commentary website Meidas Touch.
“They have no Navy. They have no Air Force,” he said of Iran. “All they can do is make a little ruckus in the strait... that other countries need, that other countries don’t want to fight for. This is unbelievable.”
The president has tried—but so far failed—to get other countries besides Israel involved militarily in the war, in particular by helping to obtain control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has closed off the vital shipping route, causing a rise in oil and gasoline prices. On Thursday, Wall Street also had its worst day since the war began, with the S&P 500 falling 1.7 percent.
Trump had set a deadline for Iran to reopen the strait or face strikes on its power plants, but on Thursday postponed that date.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, even as Iran has publicly denied that negotiations are occurring. The new deadline is April 6.
Trump has been claiming that Iran is near defeat. His administration, according to a report from Axios, is considering making a large show of force to help facilitate peace negotiations.
The Pentagon, according to the report, is preparing a “final blow” to Iran, in part by putting U.S. forces on the ground and launching a bombing campaign.
Trump’s stay at Mar-a-Lago, where he golfed on both Saturday and Sunday, came as the U.S. death toll stands at 13 service members, while more than 1,490 civilians have been killed in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. More than 1,100 people in Lebanon have also been killed in the war, according to the country’s health ministry. In Israel, at least 16 people have died as a result of Iranian strikes.
Trump has been at Mar-a-Lago 24 times in his second term, according to the Palm Beach Post.
