Amid the escalating military confrontation in the Middle East, Donald Trump on Monday warned that the conflict with Iran could intensify further.
“US military knocking the crap out of Iran, but big wave yet to come,” Trump warned as he spoke to CNN, amid the expanding US-Israel operations against Iran.
How long the war could last
Asked how long the conflict might continue, Trump suggested the timeline could be shorter than initially expected.
“I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule,” he told CNN.
The president also indicated that the United States was doing more than just conducting military strikes to support the Iranian people.
“Yes,” Trump said when asked whether Washington was helping Iranians regain control of their country from the current regime.
“We are indeed. But right now we want everyone staying inside. It’s not safe out there.”
He warned that the fighting could intensify soon. “We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”
Surprise at regional involvement
Trump said the “biggest surprise” of the conflict so far had been Iran’s attacks on several Arab countries in the region, including Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We were surprised,” Trump told CNN. “We told them, ‘We’ve got this,’ and now they want to fight. And they’re aggressively fighting. They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved.”
Speaking about Arab leaders in the region, he said, “I know these people. They’re tough and smart.”
He said Iranian strikes had angered them. “The Iranians shot into a hotel, they shot into an apartment house. It just made them angry. They love us, but they were watching. There was no reason for them to be involved.”
Of Iran’s attacks on these countries, Trump said, “that was probably the biggest surprise.”
Leadership uncertainty in Iran
Trump also claimed that recent strikes had killed a large number of senior Iranian figures, creating uncertainty over who is currently leading the country.
“We don’t know who the leadership is. We don’t know who they’ll pick. Maybe they’ll get lucky and get someone who knows what they’re doing,” he said.
According to Trump, Iran lost “a lot in terms of leadership” after the initial strikes.
“Forty-nine people,” he said. “It was an amazing strike.”
He added that Iranian leaders made a mistake by gathering in one place. “They got a little bit arrogant. They thought they were undetectable. They weren’t undetectable. We were shocked by it.”
“They don’t even know who’s leading them now,” Trump said. “We went down 49.”
“Those were the leaders, and some of them were being considered,” he said. “But with more than four dozen killed, we don’t know who’s leading the country now. They don’t know who’s leading. It’s a little like the unemployment line.”
Failed negotiations and the nuclear issue
Trump told CNN that his administration had attempted negotiations with Iran before launching the military operation.
“We couldn’t make a deal with these people,” he said, adding that Iranian negotiators repeatedly walked back earlier proposals.
He said Tehran had refused to end uranium enrichment. “They had all that enriched stuff. They looked at redoing it there, but it was in such bad shape, the mountain had basically collapsed.”
Defending the military campaign, Trump said force was the only option left. “This is the way.”
“We don’t have to worry about agreements,” he said, pointing to decades of conflict involving Iran since the 1979 revolution.
“You go back 37 years, really 47 years, close to 50, look at what’s happened and all the death. People in the military walking around with no legs, walking around with no arms, their faces shattered,” he said.
Trump also cited earlier US actions against Iran, including the 2020 drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani.
“We took out Soleimani last time,” he said. “He was an unbelievably violent, vicious general.”
“That was a big move,” Trump said. “If that didn’t happen, then you might not have Israel today. Israel might not exist.”
He also referred to the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2025, saying, “Then we had Midnight Hammer. Very important. They were a month away from having a nuclear weapon.”
Trump also criticised the nuclear agreement negotiated during the Barack Obama administration.
“That deal was so bad,” he said. “It was a pathway to a bomb.”
Despite the ongoing conflict, Trump told CNN he believed the military campaign was progressing well.
“So it’s going good,” he said before ending the interview.
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