Donald Trump has promised a forceful response after a surprise strike on U.S. troops. The president spoke out following an Iranian missile attack on American forces in Jordan. Tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated sharply this week after Iranian forces launched an unexpected strike on U.S. troops.
The president wasted no time signaling that a hard response was coming, and his comments quickly set off fresh questions about where the standoff goes next.
Donald Trump warned Iran of severe retaliation after the reported missile strike on U.S. forces in Jordan
Speaking from Washington on Wednesday, Donald Trump pledged to “beat the f-king s-t out of” Iran after the Islamic Republic fired on American troops stationed in Jordan. The remarks marked one of his sharpest warnings yet amid rising US-Iran tensions.
“We’ll be hitting them hard,” Trump told Fox News chief foreign affairs correspondent Trey Yingst in a brief interview early Wednesday. “They’re going to get a beating.” The president’s message followed joint U.S. and Saudi strikes on Iran-aligned militants in Iraq a day earlier, launched after the attempted ambush.
U.S. Central Command reported Tuesday that the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had directed more than 30 drone attacks on American forces in the region over three days. None of which succeeded.
Even so, Trump on Iran left the door open to diplomacy, adding that talks would go on because, in his words, “we’re going to let them keep talking.”
Before the strike in Jordan, the president had repeatedly signaled he was prepared to resume aggressive action. His Trump warning Iran centered on the country’s nuclear ambitions. “Well, that’s all we discussed because they’ll never have a nuclear weapon,” he told “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday.
The pause in fighting had followed what Trump described as progress in negotiations, which Iran initially matched before the latest attack broke the lull.
WHAT SHOULD THE U.S. DO NEXT IN THIS STANDOFF?
