President Donald Trump launched new bomb strikes on Iran Wednesday evening, just hours after wishing for “peace for the world.”
The latest round of attacks, targeting multiple sites in Iran, according to U.S. Central Command, follows Trump’s warning earlier in the day that U.S. forces would be “attacking them very hard.”
The 79-year-old president told Fox News’s Trey Yingst that 49 Tomahawk missiles had been launched against targets as close as 40 miles outside Tehran.
According to Fox News, Trump also claimed that Iranian officials had called him after the strikes, asking for the bombing to stop.
Yingst said that when Trump was asked what would happen if Iran did not accept his peace proposal, the president said, “We’ll bomb the s--t out of them tomorrow night.”
The latest escalation follows U.S. strikes launched on Tuesday evening in retaliation for Tehran’s downing of a U.S. helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, in turn, responded to those strikes on Wednesday with drone and missile attacks against military bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The tit-for-tat strikes mark a serious flare-up in the 14-week-old war and cast fresh doubt on peace negotiations. Trump, 79, had claimed that he was “very close to a final deal with Iran” on Sunday, and similarly told reporters on Monday night that he was “very close to signing a very powerful deal, a very good deal.”
The president has made a habit of preaching peace while simultaneously issuing bombastic threats and ordering military strikes.
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump, who turns 80 on June 14, was asked to name his birthday wish.
“Peace for the world,” he said. “OK? Peace for the world.”
Just minutes earlier, he had accused Iran of stalling peace talks and said that more strikes were coming.
“We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today, in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set,” the self-proclaimed “peace president” said. “And we’ll see what happens with a deal.”
He fumed, “We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Analysis from CNN found that since just before the tenuous ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran was agreed to on April 7, Trump has claimed on at least 38 occasions that the war with Iran will end any day now and that Tehran is close to agreeing to a peace deal.
The elderly commander-in-chief had begun his day by firing off an unhinged Truth Social post warning that Tehran will “pay the price” for not agreeing to a peace deal with the U.S.
“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore - They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!!” Trump posted at 7:03 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”
In a follow-up Truth Social post, Trump insisted the war is going well, but the “Fake News Media refuses to report how EFFECTIVE” the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports is.
“NOTHING GETS THROUGH unless we want it to. IT IS A STEEL WALL! Iran is doing ZERO business, not paying their military, or any of their bills, and quickly becoming a FAILED NATION,” Trump wrote at 7:32 a.m.
“Lots of oil is getting out. Praise be to Allah!”
