Donald Trump bragged about the resumption of his brutal war on Iran—after waking up in neighboring Turkey.
The 80-year-old is in Ankara for a NATO summit dominated by discussion of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Trump’s demands for NATO allies to boost defense spending, and his on-off threats to seize Greenland.
The president’s ill-fated war on Iran will also be a talking point. Despite the two sides signing a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at a ceasefire, the deal is on shaky ground after the U.S. completed a military strike on over 80 targets in Iran, according to a statement released on Tuesday from Central Command.
Despite NATO’s concerns over the conflict, Trump spent his morning in Turkey filling his Truth Social with outsourced violent imagery.
Two posts were sent at around 5:45 a.m. local time, one sharing a video captioned “massive strikes against Iran,” the other a still image of a “BOOM!” explosion gif, with the caption “I voted for this!”
Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz was quick to highlight the latest strikes, sharing the Central Command post with the caption “FAFO” or “F--- Around Find Out.”
One America News’ White House correspondent Daniel Baldwin posted, “The strikes from the U.S. overnight were significant,” and said Trump was “sending a very loud message” while in Turkey.
Central Command’s statement revealed U.S. forces struck Iranian air defense systems, command-and-control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and over 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the Strait of Hormuz in order “to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international commerce flowing through the international trade corridor.”
Restricted access to the Strait of Hormuz has sent the global price of crude oil sharply higher, giving Trump a political headache ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.
On Tuesday, America reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil, which had previously been lifted as part of the ceasefire agreement.
The statement claimed that Iran had recently attacked three commercial vessels in the strait, and warned, “The unwarranted aggression by Iranian forces is a clear and dangerous violation of the ceasefire and undermines freedom of navigation.”
Central Command said its forces were “prepared to hold Iran accountable when the agreement is not adhered to or obeyed.”
CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas said the U.S. had “upped the ante” by conducting more military strikes, as well as reimposing oil sanctions on Iran.
“Previous U.S. military strikes in response to Iranian violations were insufficient to stop additional strikes, as we saw today as they happened once again,” Plitsas told host Elex Michaelson on Tuesday.
He claimed that the U.S. decided it was “going to up the ante” by reimposing after intelligence reporting, which had been briefed to Trump, that Iran’s economy is “actually in trouble.”
“It‘s a result of historic sanctions on Iran, in combination with the impact of the strikes of the war over the last several months, in combination with the blockade,” Plitsas said, saying that Iran was suffering from a “cash crunch” and needed “liquidity.”
Part of the peace deal with the U.S. involved access to a $300 billion fund for economic restoration.
“It was the reason that they were looking to have the oil sanctions lifted, and they wanted access to all of their frozen cash,” he said. “And so when the military strikes didn‘t work, the U.S. now upped the ante by reimposing those sanctions.”
But decades of sanctions on Iran, the war, and a U.S. blockade on its ports have damaged Iran’s economy, said Plitsas, a counter-terrorism expert at the Atlantic Council.
“It was the reason that they were looking to have the oil sanctions lifted, and they wanted access to all of their frozen cash. And so when the military strikes didn’t work, the U.S. now upped the ante by imposing those sanctions.”
