The crash comes at a moment of political pressure for President Donald Trump, who is facing high gas prices, a stock market downturn, and declining approval ratings tied to his war with Iran. In a prime-time address Wednesday night, Trump said he planned to continue attacking Iran for two or three more weeks to further debilitate its ballistic missile program and set back its ability to develop a nuclear weapon.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has insisted in recent days that the U.S. has achieved enough air superiority over Iran that its planes were able to bomb the country at will. If it is confirmed that Iran shot down the plane, the incident would underscore that Iran can still retaliate even under intense U.S. bombardment.
Iran claims it shot down U.S. fighter jet
In a statement published on the semi-official Tasnim News Agency on Friday morning, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) claimed that it had shot down an American “fighter jet in the central sky of Iran by the new advanced aerospace defense system of the Guards.” The statement mistakenly claimed that the downed fighter jet was an F-35, but did not specify when or where it had been shot down or crashed.