US president Donald Trump claimed that the US has the upper hand after it launched further strikes on multiple targets in Iran, a day after it struck Iran in retaliation for a drone attack on a cargo ship in the strait of Hormuz.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump posted to Truth Social in the wake of Saturday’s strikes.
“If that happens,” he wrote, “the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist.”
About an hour after Trump’s post, the Kuwaiti army said its air defences were responding to “hostile” missile and drone attacks, while sirens sounded in Bahrain, according to that country’s interior ministry.
Elsewhere, JD Vance continued to reiterate the administration’s triumphant line on the war with Iran hours before the latest round of strikes were exchanged.
“If we make the final deal, then great,” the US vice-president told HBO’s Bill Maher.
“If we don’t make the final deal, their nuclear program is still destroyed. They’re still much weaker as a country, so my attitude is America wins either way.”
Trump also said on Saturday that he will nominate Lance Schroyer as the next director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), succeeding David Venturella, who had been performing the duties of the director.
The president said in a Truth Social post that Schroyer “has over 29 YEARS of Law Enforcement experience in Oklahoma – A State where I WON all 77 Counties in 2016, 2020, and 2024! Lance is a former Oklahoma State Trooper, and United States Marine”.
Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on X that Schroyer “will play a vital role in helping deliver on the President’s mandate from the American people to target, arrest, and deport illegal aliens”.