Trump Says Iran 'on the Run,' Taunts NATO Allies
Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative — a high-profile Saudi business conference held in the US state of Florida — Trump cast Iran as a diminished power, crediting the American-led Operation Epic Fury with gutting its capabilities.
"For 47 years, Iran has been known as the bully of the Middle East, but they are not the bully any longer. They're on the run," Trump declared, framing decades of Iranian conduct as defined by what he called "terror aggression" and "nuclear blackmail."
The US president painted the moment in sweeping historical terms: "As you know, we're gathered at a moment of bold action and historic decision to make America and our allies safer and stronger, more prosperous, more successful than ever before. That's what's happening.
"Tonight we're closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East that is finally free at last, from Iranian terror aggression and nuclear blackmail," he said.
— 'Iran Has to Open Up the Strait of Hormuz' —
Trump claimed Iran's leadership had been decimated and that Tehran was now actively seeking a way out of the conflict. "Their leaders are dead. Their supreme leader is no longer supreme. He's dead. Son is either dead or in very bad shape, because nobody has heard from him. I think he says, 'just keep me out of this,'" he said.
Asserting that the US still had "another 3,554 targets left" in Iran, Trump vowed the operation "would be done pretty quickly."
The president pointedly declined to label the campaign a "war," insisting instead on the term "military operation" — citing "legal reasons" and a deliberate effort to sidestep formal congressional authorization.
On the critical maritime flashpoint of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump demanded Iran reopen the waterway — before quipping about giving it a new name.
"We're negotiating now, and it would be great if we could do something, but they have to open it up. They have to open up the Strait of Trump -- I mean Hormuz. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. Such a terrible mistake," he said, drawing laughs before addressing media coverage of the slip: "The fake news will say, 'he accidentally said.' There's no accidents with me, not too many. If there were, it would have a major story."
— Sharp Warning to NATO —
Trump reserved pointed criticism for NATO, calling the alliance's decision to stay out of the Iran operation a "tremendous mistake" with long-term repercussions.
"We would have always been there for them, but now, based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be," he said.
Framing the military campaign as a test of alliance loyalty, Trump warned that those who stood aside would pay a price. "We helped a lot of allies, and we learned about other allies. We learned that other allies weren't there," he said, adding: "We didn't need them, but they weren't there if we did need them, and that's going to be very costly for them."
By contrast, Trump singled out Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Türkiye, and Indonesia for praise. He reserved particular warmth for Ankara: "I think Turkey was fantastic. Actually, fantastic, and they stayed out of things that we asked them to," calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "great leader."
Closing on a sweeping note, Trump predicted a regional transformation, expressing confidence that Middle Eastern nations would flock to the Abraham Accords — the US-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and Muslim-majority states — declaring that the future of the region had never "looked brighter."
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