Israel bombed several Iranian cities and nuclear sites early Friday, and Donald Trump has done nothing but inflame the situation.
In a phone call with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, the president referred to the attacks as “excellent,” remarking that Iran “got hit hard, very hard,” and that there was “a lot more” to come.
In early morning posts to Truth Social about the escalating situation, Trump claimed that he had pushed Iran for months to come to terms on a new nuclear deal and warned that—if the nation refused—there would be “nothing left.”
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump wrote. “I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done.”
The president also promised that Israel would continue to strike Iranian territory with American-made weapons.
“I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come—And they know how to use it,” he continued.
“Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!” Trump said.
In a separate post, Trump claimed that he had given Iran 60 days to make a deal approximately two months ago. “They should have done it!” he wrote, adding that the country now has a “second chance” to return to the negotiating table. But Iran has already said it would not participate in nuclear talks this weekend in the wake of the attack.
Iran has argued that it is seeking uranium for peaceful purposes. Iranian officials announced Thursday afternoon their intentions to expand their nuclear program, despite facing a censure from a U.N. nuclear watchdog for failing to uphold nonproliferation obligations. Israeli strikes have so far killed four senior Iranian commanders, including Hossein Salami, the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian state media confirmed late Thursday, though regional sources told Reuters that up to 20 senior commanders had been killed.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, said there would be “severe punishment” for the strikes.