The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations declared a “dominant victory” over Iran—while in the next breath urging other countries to step up and help Team Trump.
Mike Waltz, 52, touted the success of the U.S. offensive despite mounting casualties during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
“Militarily, the U.S. military has decimated Iran’s air force, their air defenses, their missile capability, their missile production capability,” Waltz said.
The former Green Beret then proclaimed: “This has been a dominant victory, the likes of which we haven’t seen in modern American military history.”
Later in the conversation, however, Waltz sounded less certain about “victory” when the subject turned to oil—and called on other countries to draw their own militaries into the area.
Discussing Trump’s promise of Navy escorts for oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, host Jake Tapper noted that shipping executives told CNN that their requests for escorts had so far been “rebuffed.”
Tapper read from another Trump Truth Social post, in which the president shared his “hope” that “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others will send ships to the area.”
Asked whether any of the named countries had actually committed to Trump’s plan—with France having already refused—Waltz ventured: “Well, I’ll leave those, you know, those conversations to him. The conversations are ongoing.”
Waltz then turned to praising Trump’s “energy dominance agenda,” calling the progressive left “a little bit rich” for supporting green energy policies yet “decrying the lack of it” thanks to Trump’s war.
Getting back to the question of military escorts, Waltz suggested that other countries had both a historical precedent and a contemporary duty to get involved in the Persian Gulf.
“Look, back in the eighties under the tanker wars then—the last time Iran tried to constrain global energy supplies—you had French, United Kingdom, even Soviet Union forces in there escorting their tankers out that were heading to their markets,” he said.
“And I think that’s what President Trump is calling upon the world, saying ‘the entire world is affected. Iran can’t hold your economies hostage.’”
Waltz concluded—despite his claims of victory—that the issue would be ongoing, stating: “We certainly welcome, encourage, and even demand their participation to help their own economies. And meanwhile, the U.S. military will continue to pound the Iranian military and their missile boat and drone forces to keep the Strait open.”
