President Donald Trump
declared that Iran is no longer “the bully of the Middle East” as he touted U.S. military strikes against Tehran during a midterm campaign rally in Montana late Wednesday night.
“They were strong, now they’re not so strong,” Trump said, repeating his claims that Iran’s navy and air force had been largely destroyed.
Trump said the conflict, which he said has lasted for 51 years, will end “very quickly” — “one way or the other” — and predicted oil prices would plunge once the fighting stops.
“They don’t have a Navy; they don’t have an air force; their army is decimated; their leaders are gone,” Trump said. “I should have probably left the leaders because I don’t know who we’re negotiating with. They had their first-string leaders are all gone. Their second-string leaders are all gone. Half of their third-string leaders are gone. And now their main thing that they ask in negotiation is, ‘Will you please allow us to live?’
“This is all they do. They don’t want us to go after them.”
Trump repeated his belief that transitory oil price shocks are a small price to pay for striking at Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.
“It’s all about we’re not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he continued. “You want to see a mess?
“But it’s going to end and it’s going to end very, very soon, and when that happens, it’s the oil is going to drop like a rock.”
Making peace through strength with Iran was long overdue, according to Trump.
“This should have been done by other presidents a long time ago. It’s gone on for 51 years. The bully, they call them the bully of the Middle East. Iran was the bully of the Middle East.
“And they are, you know, they were strong – now they are not so strong.”
Trump said he is “trying to be nice” amid war.
“How many jet fighters are available for use today? Zero,” Trump concluded. “You know where they are: They’re all scattered all over the beautiful runways of their land. They’re all scattered in little tiny pieces all over the runways and it’s all gone.
“And now I’m trying to be nice. I want to be a nice person, but it’s going to end very quickly one way or the other, and the oil is going to drop. Your prices have come way down.”