President Donald Trump said Tuesday that fresh U.S. strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz were “large and powerful” and fully justified, warning Tehran it would face far greater retaliation if it responded.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said U.S. forces were carrying out the strikes in response to Iran’s “failed” attempt at adding sea mines to the Strait of Hormuz and launching missiles at an American military base in Jordan. He added that the strait currently has no mines, saying they had been completely removed or detonated.
Trump went further in warning against any Iranian response, saying that if Tehran retaliated it would be struck at “a much harder and higher level,” though he said it would not be “the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings.” He said that if that larger operation ever came, “there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
U.S. Central Command confirmed shortly before Trump’s statement that American forces had begun striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets inside Iran. The command separately said it had cleared Iranian sea mines from internationally recognized shipping lanes through Hormuz, calling the operation a “major milestone,” and that U.S. naval forces enforcing the blockade against Iran had redirected 84 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two to ensure compliance.
An Iranian lawmaker, Ebrahim Azizi, warned separately that Tehran’s “doctrine of deterrence has evolved,” without elaborating further.
Tuesday’s exchange follows a broader pattern from the six-month conflict: after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year, Trump similarly warned that any retaliation would be “met with force far greater than what was witnessed,” a warning he has now repeated in near-identical terms.
