President Donald Trump signaled the U.S. military could have a ramped-up presence in the Middle East to deal with Iran indefinitely as he sets his sights on a new “territory.”
Concern is deepening that the president has drawn the U.S. into a quagmire in the region as his war stretches into its sixth month and Trump struggles to reach a deal.
Trump insisted while speaking on Long Island on Friday that Iran was being “very badly defeated” after he has already repeatedly declared victory for months.
But he indicated he could push to make the crucial waterway at the center of the conflict a part of the U.S.
“Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said with a smile.
“Essentially, that’s what,” Trump said with a wave of his arms before failing to complete the sentence.
“We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” the president said before bringing up Venezuela as a “one-day war.”
Moments later, Trump rambled that the U.S. could not let Iran have a nuclear weapon before dismissing the higher costs of energy due to his war, despite Americans struggling to make ends meet.
The U.S. broke a record on Friday when the average price for a gallon of gas was the highest it has been in August, according to GasBuddy.com.
The national average for a gallon of regular gas was $4.07, while diesel hit $5.41 a gallon. But Trump shrugged off the higher costs at his rally-style event.
The president indicated that the price of gasoline at $4 was “ok.”
“For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember, you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have—a country, really it’s the number one state sponsor of terror in the world, we don’t want to have them have a nuclear weapon—so remember that when you have to pay a litlte bit more, your’e at $4. It’s ok,” Trump said.
“I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing,” he declared.
Trump’s claim that he could declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory came just hours after he dismissed concerns about the dire conditions for some U.S. service members stationed in the region.
After almost nine months at sea, the lack of adequate food and working plumbing has become so horrific for those serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln that several sailors on the carrier have attempted to go overboard, according to multiple reports.
But Trump on Friday was completely dismissive of the plight of the American men and women in uniform and their families sounding the alarms.
Asked whether family members were concerned about conditions on the ship, Trump replied, “No, they’re not.”
When he was asked whether the deployment had gone on too long given the mental health risks, the president, who never served and even received multiple deferments from serving in Vietnam, indicated the deployment was actually not long enough.
“No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” Trump said, before walking off to board Air Force One for his visit to New York.
While Trump has repeatedly insisted the U.S. has decimated Iran militarily, on Friday, he acknowledged at his event that Iran was still capable of manufacturing missiles.
“They still have drones but just a fraction of what they had,” Trump said.
