- 16 minutes ago
Date of Analysis: April 7, 2026
Source Event: White House Press Briefing, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, April 6, 2026
The April 6, 2026, White House press conference marked a definitive turning point in the second Trump administration’s conduct of Operation Epic Fury. What began as a narrative of localized military rescue was explicitly reframed as a doctrine of total infrastructure warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lasting over eighty-three minutes, the session—featuring President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—synthesized tactical updates, religious symbolism, aggressive economic policy, and a confrontational stance toward domestic institutions. This report analyzes the strategic, legal, and economic dimensions of the administration’s declarations, focusing on the tactical recovery of downed airmen, the looming "Power Plant Day" ultimatum, and the fragmentation of the post-World War II international order.
Tactical Recovery and the Evolution of Combat Search and Rescue
The immediate catalyst for the press conference was the successful extraction of two U.S. Air Force service members from hostile Iranian territory following a forty-eight-hour evasion period. On Friday, April 3, 2026—Good Friday—an F-15E Strike Eagle supporting Operation Epic Fury was downed by a handheld heat-seeking missile, marking the first loss of a manned U.S. aircraft to enemy fire since hostilities commenced on February 28, 2026.
The rescue unfolded in two distinct tactical phases. The pilot was recovered within six hours via an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter. However, the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO)—a "respected colonel" badly injured and bleeding—evaded capture for approximately 48 hours by scaling cliffs and hiding in caves to avoid Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) patrols and locally incentivized militias.
The second phase involved a massive force package of 155 aircraft, including A-10 Thunderbolts, KC-130s, 4 bombers, 64 fighters, and 48 refueling tankers. President Trump revealed that a significant portion of these assets were deployed to "decoy sites" to deceive Iranian forces about the airman’s true location. The airman was eventually located after activating an emergency transponder and transmitting a message later characterized by Secretary Hegseth as "God is good."
Rescue Mission Tactical Metrics Phase I (Pilot) Phase II (WSO/Colonel)
Asset Loss F-15E Strike Eagle N/A
Initial Date April 3, 2026 (Good Friday) April 3, 2026
Recovery Date April 3, 2026 April 5, 2026 (Easter Sunday)
Duration of Evasion ~6 Hours ~48 Hours
Total Aircraft Involved 21 Aircraft 155 Aircraft
Tactical Innovation Standard CSAR Mass Subterfuge / Decoy Maneuvers
The Religious Context of Military Victory
A defining feature of the administration’s messaging was the heavy infusion of Christian rhetoric. Secretary Hegseth drew explicit parallels between the airman’s re
Source Event: White House Press Briefing, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, April 6, 2026
The April 6, 2026, White House press conference marked a definitive turning point in the second Trump administration’s conduct of Operation Epic Fury. What began as a narrative of localized military rescue was explicitly reframed as a doctrine of total infrastructure warfare against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lasting over eighty-three minutes, the session—featuring President Donald J. Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—synthesized tactical updates, religious symbolism, aggressive economic policy, and a confrontational stance toward domestic institutions. This report analyzes the strategic, legal, and economic dimensions of the administration’s declarations, focusing on the tactical recovery of downed airmen, the looming "Power Plant Day" ultimatum, and the fragmentation of the post-World War II international order.
Tactical Recovery and the Evolution of Combat Search and Rescue
The immediate catalyst for the press conference was the successful extraction of two U.S. Air Force service members from hostile Iranian territory following a forty-eight-hour evasion period. On Friday, April 3, 2026—Good Friday—an F-15E Strike Eagle supporting Operation Epic Fury was downed by a handheld heat-seeking missile, marking the first loss of a manned U.S. aircraft to enemy fire since hostilities commenced on February 28, 2026.
The rescue unfolded in two distinct tactical phases. The pilot was recovered within six hours via an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter. However, the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO)—a "respected colonel" badly injured and bleeding—evaded capture for approximately 48 hours by scaling cliffs and hiding in caves to avoid Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) patrols and locally incentivized militias.
The second phase involved a massive force package of 155 aircraft, including A-10 Thunderbolts, KC-130s, 4 bombers, 64 fighters, and 48 refueling tankers. President Trump revealed that a significant portion of these assets were deployed to "decoy sites" to deceive Iranian forces about the airman’s true location. The airman was eventually located after activating an emergency transponder and transmitting a message later characterized by Secretary Hegseth as "God is good."
Rescue Mission Tactical Metrics Phase I (Pilot) Phase II (WSO/Colonel)
Asset Loss F-15E Strike Eagle N/A
Initial Date April 3, 2026 (Good Friday) April 3, 2026
Recovery Date April 3, 2026 April 5, 2026 (Easter Sunday)
Duration of Evasion ~6 Hours ~48 Hours
Total Aircraft Involved 21 Aircraft 155 Aircraft
Tactical Innovation Standard CSAR Mass Subterfuge / Decoy Maneuvers
The Religious Context of Military Victory
A defining feature of the administration’s messaging was the heavy infusion of Christian rhetoric. Secretary Hegseth drew explicit parallels between the airman’s re
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00attempted before but we did and we got we had great talent we got a little luck too i would
00:00:06say
00:00:07and uh we were helped by a lot of people a lot of great people and it was an honor
00:00:13to be involved
00:00:14with it it's uh very historic this is a a rescue that's very historic it'll go down to the books
00:00:22late thursday night an american f-15 fighter jet went down deep inside enemy territory
00:00:29in iran while participating in operation epic fury where we're doing unbelievably well
00:00:36well at a level that nobody's ever seen before
00:00:40the entire country could be taken out in one night and that night might be tomorrow night
00:00:47both members of the crew ejected from the aircraft and landed alive on iranian soil i immediately
00:00:55was asked to make a decision i ordered the u.s armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring
00:01:02our
00:01:03brave warriors back home a risky decision because we could have ended up with a hundred dead as
00:01:10opposed to one or two it's a hard decision to make but in the united states military
00:01:16we leave no american behind we don't do it within hours our armed forces deployed 21 military aircraft
00:01:24into hostile airspace many flying at very low altitude being shot by bullets
00:01:31you bring rifles into play when you're going that low but there are also certain advantages
00:01:38and in broad daylight over iran for seven hours at times facing very very heavy enemy fire we have a
00:01:46helicopter that's got a lot of bullets in it it's amazing we just realized how good those
00:01:51those weapons are those are machines are nobody has nobody has the equipment that we have and nobody
00:01:58has the military that we have not even close the most powerful military anywhere in the world by far
00:02:05the flight crews and war fighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to
00:02:10rescue their fellow service members this first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located the
00:02:17pilot of the f-15 and he was extracted from enemy territory by an hh-60 jolly green two helicopter
00:02:27fabulous machine as our warriors faced gunfire at very close range
00:02:33it's amazing that when you look at the machinery what happened that nobody was even injured meanwhile the
00:02:42second crew member a weapon system officer highly respected colonel had landed a significant distance
00:02:49away from the pilot when you're going at those speeds even if you go out two or three seconds later
00:02:55it's miles it's miles and miles away because you're going fast he was injured quite badly and stranded in an
00:03:03area teeming with terrorists from the islamic revolutionary guard corps rough group
00:03:08as well as besieged military militia and local authorities many uh on top of everything else
00:03:18they told the communities actually with inside of iran the people of iran they were given
00:03:26a tremendous incentive to find this pilot despite the peril the officer followed his training and
00:03:33and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and
00:03:37started climbing toward a higher altitude something they were trained to do in order to evade capture
00:03:45they want to always go as far away from the site of the shoot down you want to go as
00:03:52far away because
00:03:53they all head right to that site you want to be as far away as you can
00:03:57and he was injured and he was an amazing amazing thing he scaled cliff faces
00:04:05bleeding rather profusely treated his own wounds and contacted american forces to transmit his location
00:04:14they have a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them at all times
00:04:23and when they when they go out on these missions they make sure they have lots of battery space and
00:04:28they're in good shape and this one worked really well amazingly saved his life we immediately mobilized
00:04:36a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout and he kept going higher and higher the mountain
00:04:44kept getting rougher and rougher and really very very hard to find
00:04:49the second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft
00:04:53including four bombers 64 fighters 48 refueling tankers 13 rescue aircraft and more
00:05:01we were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge
00:05:06we wanted to have them think he was in a different location
00:05:10because they had a vast military force out there thousands thousands of people were looking
00:05:16so we wanted them to look in different areas so we were scattered all over like we were right on
00:05:22top
00:05:22of them we had seven different locations where they thought and they were very confused they said well
00:05:28wait a minute they've got groups here they've got groups there it's an amazing thing i was listening to
00:05:35these great people these great generals general raisin kane who's amazing and pete
00:05:41hegseth was amazing but i listened to the whole thing it was pretty amazing
00:05:45so they had all these different sites where everybody thought
00:05:49he was located we think we have him over there because they have nine planes circling a little area
00:05:54that's 25 miles down the coast
00:05:59so in a breathtaking show of skill and precision lethality and force america's military descended on the
00:06:07area the real area engaged the enemy rescued the stranded officer destroyed all threats and exited
00:06:16iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind the heroic f-15 weapons system officer had
00:06:24evaded capture on the ground in iran for almost 48 hours that's a long time when you're in tough
00:06:33shape and when you're bleeding it's a long time when uh when we left as you probably know we had
00:06:41two
00:06:41large planes old pretty old planes it carried a lot we needed a lot more equipment going in than coming
00:06:48out obviously because going in we needed to be able to scale mountains and we had a lot of equipment
00:06:55but the sand was it was sandy wet sand so we thought there may be a problem taking off because
00:07:02of the
00:07:03weight of the plane and then we also had all the men jumping back onto the planes and they got
00:07:08pretty
00:07:09well bogged down and we had a contingency plan which was unbelievable where lighter faster aircraft
00:07:16came in and they took them out we blew up the old planes we blew them up to smithereens because
00:07:23we had
00:07:23equipment on the planes that frankly we'd like to take but i don't think it was worthwhile spending another
00:07:28four hours there taking it off so we didn't want anybody to have we have the best best equipment
00:07:33anywhere in the world we didn't want anybody examining our uh anti-aircraft and other equipment
00:07:41so these were large planes that were old and pretty old and we blew them up and we had faster
00:07:48lighter planes come in and they were able to land on the sand we needed the bigger planes because we
00:07:53had
00:07:53so much equipment that we needed we took three helicopters over there which were very strongly
00:07:58used and couldn't have lived without them they did and they performed unbelievably well and if you'd see
00:08:04it you wouldn't believe it they came off the plane and these guys had them the the uh the rotors
00:08:11were
00:08:11off they rebuilt these helicopters in less than 10 minutes and that was one of the more amazing things
00:08:19they said these are helicopters uh small unbelievably powerful but small heli very small so it can get
00:08:28into certain areas and they got them off the plane and they rebuilt all three of them in a matter
00:08:35of
00:08:36less than i would say less than 10 minutes it's pretty amazing what the the genius of these people who
00:08:42would think that you'd think it would take five days to build them and in some companies who would take
00:08:46five days and they wouldn't do it well but they served us well they as commander in chief i never
00:08:53forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle and the genius
00:08:59i mean think of it having a contingency of three planes waiting because we think the sand is so
00:09:05bad that we probably won't be able to take off and the planes really got bogged the sand was
00:09:11this was not much of a runway this was a farm not a runway it's a farm but uh it
00:09:17did the trick
00:09:18but to have a contingency as opposed to having to wait two days can you imagine right in the middle
00:09:23this was central this was right you would call it central casting if you were doing a movie for location
00:09:31and uh probably the toughest area of iran where we'd be sitting there so these planes came in those
00:09:36pilots came in so fast and so quick and got out of there everybody got aboard and just got
00:09:4215 minute intervals one load out one load out one load out the three it happened and we were watching
00:09:51and we said that's amazing it's in many ways i was i was almost more impressed by the contingency that
00:09:59we had than the fact that you know if we would have had a runway or decent soil but it
00:10:05was an
00:10:06amazing thing but we thank god for every single one of them and the talent the genius is not even
00:10:12talent it's genius it's the whole ball game every one of them if you look at what we did with
00:10:18maduro
00:10:19we went into a military compound a massive with thousands and thousands of soldiers and within a
00:10:25matter of minutes and he lived behind iron doors there were steel doors broke them down so quickly
00:10:32and within almost minutes he was in the back of these planes it was a similar group incredible we
00:10:38have incredibly talented people and if the time comes we move heaven and earth to bring them home
00:10:45safely we're going to bring our people home safely i want to thank every member of the u.s armed
00:10:50forces
00:10:50involved in these historic operations they really were historic it's just not something that's done
00:10:56and you'd understand it not that they don't want to do it but when you're going into areas when you
00:11:01look at these helicopters when you look at the amount of bullets and everything else that they took
00:11:05when you go into these areas you don't come out like we came out god was watching us tell you
00:11:12well
00:11:13it was the easter we were in an easter territory i guess but god was watching us amazing
00:11:20because when you look at the machinery they took they took damage tells you first thing i said is
00:11:26these are unbelievable machines how they flew back and not even much of a problem but these two
00:11:32extraordinary rescues because it was two and as you probably know we didn't talk about the first one for
00:11:39an hour then somebody leaked something which will hopefully find that leaker we're looking very hard to
00:11:44find that leaker and talked about there's somebody missing they basically said that we have one and
00:11:53there's somebody missing well they didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the
00:11:57information so whoever it was we think we'll be able to find it out because we're going to go to
00:12:01the
00:12:03media company that released it and we're going to say national security give it up or go to jail
00:12:12and we know who and you know who we're talking about because some things you can't do because when
00:12:17they did that all of a sudden the entire country of iran knew that there was a pilot that was
00:12:25somewhere
00:12:25on their land that was fighting for his life and it also made it much more difficult for the pilots
00:12:34and
00:12:34for the people going in to search for him all of a sudden they know that there's somebody out there
00:12:41they see all these planes coming in it became a much more difficult operation because a leaker leaked
00:12:48that we have one we've rescued one but there's another one out there that we're trying to get
00:12:55so actually the country iran put out a major notice you all saw it offering a very big
00:13:04award for anybody that captures the pilot so in addition to a hostile very talented very good
00:13:12very evil military we had millions of people trying to get an award so when you add that to it
00:13:21but we
00:13:21have to find that leaker because that's a sick person probably didn't realize the extent of how bad it
00:13:27was i can't imagine that the person did but we're going to find out it's national security and
00:13:33the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn't say and that doesn't last long and
00:13:40i
00:13:40think everybody would understand they put this mission at great risk they put that man at great
00:13:44risk and they put the hundreds of people that went in looking for him because everyone now knows that
00:13:50we're going in over the past 37 days america's armed forces have carried out more than 10 000 combat
00:13:59flights over iran unheard of striking more than 13 000 targets the f-15 we lost last week was the
00:14:07first manned aircraft down by the enemy in this entire operation with thousands and thousands of
00:14:13flights they got lucky it was a lucky hit you know eventually you get lucky but we got lucky too
00:14:20because we got both of them back but it's a record that is unparalleled in the history of military air
00:14:27operations nobody's ever seen anything like it it's such an honor to be involved with it we were up late
00:14:35at night and then we were waiting for those contingent planes to come in and we say come
00:14:41on let's go get in because they're waiting out on this uh farm without a runway with wet
00:14:51crummy soil sand mostly sand wet sand and it eats planes alive and we're waiting and we're saying i hope
00:14:59that one can land and take off and they came in like magic boom boom boom one after another it
00:15:06was
00:15:06like genius i'm so impressed by that because we were a little concerned we said boy if they don't get
00:15:13in
00:15:13and get up fast we're sitting in them and that's called iran prime right general that's that's where
00:15:20the whole bed is and here we are sitting there waiting for a plane but they came in so fast
00:15:27and so hard
00:15:27and these guys knew exactly what let's go come on get in let's go they came one right after another
00:15:34not at the same time they don't want to come at the same time they had to come right after
00:15:39each
00:15:39other they didn't have any room there was barely any room to land tiny little patch of very wet
00:15:46earth and sand so i just i'm so proud of the people that i have standing up here with me
00:15:52and many
00:15:52others that worked i mean so many steve whitkoff's over here he's doing fantastically jared kushner
00:15:59but the people that are here the job they did is amazing and i think i'm going to introduce
00:16:05the head of the cia and he is a man who he's central casting okay if we cast a movie
00:16:13he's going to play
00:16:13the head of the cia he's one of the john ratcliffe he um he did a phenomenal job that night
00:16:20he did
00:16:20something that i don't know if you want to talk about it if you want you can i'm not sure
00:16:24he's
00:16:24supposed to i'm not going to talk about it but he really the cia was very responsible for finding
00:16:29this little speck it's like they used an expression on one of the shows the general was talking about
00:16:34it's like finding a needle in a haystack finding this pilot and the cia was unbelievable and you may
00:16:42if you can you'll talk it might be classified in which case i'd have to put him in jail if
00:16:47he talks about
00:16:47it and i don't want to put him in jail he doesn't deserve that so john do you want to
00:16:52say a few
00:16:52words thank you thank you mr president it's a privilege to be here with you today to share what
00:17:00we can about this exceptional mission and to recognize the ingenuity and bravery of those who
00:17:07executed it as well as the leadership and resolve of the president who ordered it
00:17:14one thing that has been clear to me in this role is that the flawless military operations that the
00:17:19department of war is known for are hostage to flawless intelligence we saw that in the skies over
00:17:28iran in operation midnight hammer last summer we witnessed it in venezuela during operation absolute
00:17:34resolve we've seen it against the cartels in the western hemisphere and we're seeing it every day
00:17:40in operation epic fury including this mission to rescue an aviator buried deep behind enemy lines
00:17:49because it is the unique tradition of the u.s armed forces that we leave no man or woman behind
00:17:57this was a no-fail mission that was the spirit in which the president put us to work
00:18:03and we were determined not to let him down or our airmen down as an agency the cia possesses unique
00:18:12capabilities that only the president can deploy some of these capabilities fall under covert action
00:18:19authorities and because covert means exactly that i'm not going to be able to tell you everything that
00:18:26you want to know at the president's direction we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies
00:18:34that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting
00:18:41for a single saint of grain of sand in the middle of a desert this was also a race against
00:18:48the clock as it
00:18:49was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible while at the same time keeping
00:18:56our enemies misdirected for that reason in addition to the human and technical assets deployed by the
00:19:05president to find our airmen cia executed a deception campaign to confuse the iranians who were desperately
00:19:13hunting for our airmen on saturday morning we achieved our primary objective by finding and
00:19:21providing confirmation that one of america's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain
00:19:28crevice still invisible to the enemy but not to the cia that confirmation was relayed by secretary
00:19:37hegseth to the president and the operation quickly moved to the execution phase following the successful
00:19:45exfiltration on saturday night our intelligence reflects that the iranians were embarrassed and
00:19:51ultimately humiliated by the success of this audacious rescue mission when the president asked me to lead
00:20:00the cia he made it clear get back to basics no politics no agendas tackle the hardest problems
00:20:08and execute the toughest missions this president is about results and now that's what his cia is about
00:20:17too the professionals at the agency and at the department of war deserve immense credit for their
00:20:24flawless execution during this daring mission their skill creativity and courage are unmatched
00:20:31on the battlefield wherever they step but none of that matters and all of that is wasted without a president
00:20:40with the political courage to put them into action mr president i've had the privilege
00:20:48of seeing you act with political courage in the best interest of the united states up close on a daily
00:20:53basis and i'm grateful that this successful mission has given the american people a window into that as
00:20:59well the secretary and chairman will tell you that our service members confidence is boosted by a commander in
00:21:06chief who has their back the same way they have yours and i know that the confidence of cia's officers
00:21:14is boosted by the knowledge that their work is informing a president who's not afraid to make the hardest
00:21:22decisions when the stakes are highest and to the american people your confidence should be boosted by
00:21:31knowing that the security of the nation is in the hands of a president who's willing to take on problems
00:21:37that have confounded both sides of the political aisle for nearly half a century it is an honor to serve
00:21:45under a leader who just proved that you can believe him when he says no matter what we will leave
00:21:53no one
00:21:54behind we will come for you thank you well john thank you for the collaboration the cia as well incredible
00:22:10and ongoing partnership ladies and gentlemen fellow americans and especially the brave warriors in our
00:22:16armed forces over this easter weekend the united states military has once again proved why we possess
00:22:23the greatest fighting force the world has ever known in two extraordinary combat search and rescue
00:22:30operations deep inside enemy territory in iran our warriors executed missions of breathtaking skill
00:22:38courage and precision when our warriors are unleashed as this president has allowed them to be
00:22:45they are unstoppable when american airmen were down behind enemy lines our forces and our
00:22:52president did not hesitate special operators supported by elite air crews and intelligence professionals
00:22:58moved swiftly and decisively into treacherous mountain terrain under the constant threat of iranian forces
00:23:05closing in ultimately it was an impotent iranian threat and today as the cia director
00:23:12mentioned iran's military and we know this is embarrassed and humiliated and they should be
00:23:19now these are not routine operations they were high risk high stakes missions conducted in the heart
00:23:25of enemy territory this was not just barely into iran this was deep into iran involving coordinated
00:23:31strikes to suppress threats deception tactics to protect our teams and full synchronization across air
00:23:37ground and special operations the iranians are still asking themselves right now how did the americans
00:23:44do this one downed airmen evaded capture for more than a day scaling rugged ridges while hunted by the enemy
00:23:54when he was finally able to activate his emergency transponder his first message was simple
00:24:01and it was powerful he sent a message god is good in that moment of isolation and danger his faith
00:24:10and fighting spirit shone through you see shot down on a friday good friday hidden in a cave
00:24:19a crevice all of saturday and rescued on sunday flown out of iran as the sun was rising on easter
00:24:30sunday
00:24:31a pilot reborn all home and accounted for a nation rejoicing god is good despite incoming fire and
00:24:43unforgiving conditions our troops brought every american home no american lives were lost we leave
00:24:50no man behind and that is not luck it's the result of unmatched training superior technology an unbreakable
00:24:57warrior ethos and sheer american grit our special operators pilots and support crews performed with
00:25:06near perfection under fire and they were lethal just ask any iranian soldier who dared attempt to get
00:25:15anywhere near that pilot before or during that mission death from above
00:25:23our troops turned a potential tragedy into a resounding demonstration of american resolve and capability
00:25:28that's what excellence in uniform looks like but make no mistake about it none of this
00:25:36would have been possible without the courageous leadership and ironclad determination of president
00:25:42donald j trump from the moment our airmen went down president trump made it clear we will leave
00:25:48no one behind the first mission the first of two was an audacious daylight thunder run right up the
00:25:58middle it was authorized in less than two hours from that pilot going down when we knew where he was
00:26:06and it was authorized in the middle of the night because anybody that's worked for this man knows
00:26:10he's up in the middle of the night authorized immediately without hesitation audaciously
00:26:16the second mission as soon as we knew where that pilot was and john was certainly helpful in that
00:26:22also executed immediately you know i looked up at my screen when the final mission was complete
00:26:27inside our skiff our secure facility and we have a running vtc a running coordination cell and the top of
00:26:35it read 45 minutes and 45 hours and 56 minutes for 45 hours and 56 minutes we held that call
00:26:45open for
00:26:45coordination from the moment our pilots went down our mission was unblinking the call never dropped the
00:26:52meeting never stopped the planning never ceased the president demanded rapid decisive action he backed our
00:27:00military with the full weight of his resolve refusing to let enemy propaganda or tactical setbacks deter us
00:27:06his leadership ensured that every lethal and non-lethal resource was brought to bear that our forces had the
00:27:13authorities and the support they needed to succeed when the president says he has the backs of our war
00:27:20fighters he means it and it means a great deal and it's a big difference on the battlefield president trump
00:27:27understands that peace through strength it's not a slogan it is a doctrine that saves american lives
00:27:34his unwavering commitment to rebuilding our military and restoring the warrior spirit has paid dividends
00:27:40in missions just like this one under his command america projects power with confidence
00:27:47and brings our people home with victory and that continues today by the way per the president's
00:27:53direction today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation tomorrow even more
00:28:00than today and then iran has a choice choose wisely because this president does not play around you can
00:28:09ask soleimani you can ask maduro you can ask khameini to those heroes who planned and executed these
00:28:17rescues your nation stands in awe i stand in awe the chairman stands in awe we all stand in awe
00:28:23of your professionalism and bravery we serve for you you embody the very best of america to the
00:28:30rescued airmen and their families welcome home your courage and endurance the quiet declaration of
00:28:37faith amid the storm inspires us all god is good every day and to our adversaries watching from tehran
00:28:48let this be a clear message the united states military will go anywhere at any time to protect our own
00:28:55and complete the mission we execute with precision we control the sky you see we flew for seven hours
00:29:04in daylight over iran to get the first pilot and we flew seven hours in the middle of the night
00:29:11to get
00:29:12the second and iran did nothing about it we fight with honor and under president trump's leadership
00:29:20we win so god bless our troops god bless president trump and god bless the united states of america thank
00:29:26you
00:29:29well good afternoon everyone um thank you mr president thank you mr secretary i know before i start i know
00:29:36many of you want specific details uh in these briefings we will share what we can but i will
00:29:43retain what i must in the event that we have to go do this again sometime and i cannot stress
00:29:50the
00:29:50importance as the president said around operational security the secretary and i will do a more detailed
00:29:56briefing tomorrow morning and we look forward to sharing the details that we can
00:30:00on thursday 2 april at 10 10 p.m eastern time 4 40 in the morning local iran time the
00:30:07joint personnel
00:30:08recovery center which handles the central command area of responsibility declared an isolated personnel
00:30:14recovery event for u.s air force f-15e strike eagle call sign dude 4-4 which was down in
00:30:22hostile iranian
00:30:23territory the pilot and weapons system officer had both safely ejected and were isolated behind enemy
00:30:29lines following confirmation of active rescue beacons and on the direction of the secretary and by
00:30:35order of the president a rescue operation was launched with the stated purpose of bringing both
00:30:41americans home safely as the secretary said several hours later on the morning after positively locating
00:30:49the front seater call sign dude 4-4 alpha and aware of an aggressive ongoing search by the enemy
00:30:56a u.s central command plan was approved by the secretary and the president shortly thereafter a u.s air
00:31:04force
00:31:04combat search and rescue task force comprised of a-10 warthogs in their sandy role and i'll describe what
00:31:12that is in a minute hc-130 combat king 2s hh-60 jolly green 2 helicopters and air force special
00:31:20warfare airmen
00:31:22a package comprised of combat rescue officers and para-rescuement operators audaciously penetrated
00:31:29enemy territory in broad daylight to find fix and recover dude 4-4 alpha from behind enemy lines
00:31:39this was an incredibly dangerous mission an incredibly dangerous undertaking but a filled promise made to
00:31:49every american warfighter that you will not be left behind we will always come find you and we will
00:31:57always bring you home over the next hours the search and rescue task force crossed the beach entered into
00:32:04iranian airspace protected by a fighter strike package and moved into the objective area all under fire
00:32:12in route as some of you have seen on social media the helicopters took gas off the c-130s
00:32:19and pressed onward and forward up into the objective area while this was ongoing and out in front of
00:32:25them the sandy flight of a-10s and other remotely piloted aircraft drones and other tactical aircraft
00:32:32were violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight to keep them away from the front
00:32:39seater and allow the pickup force to get into the objective area during this engagement one of the sandy
00:32:47aircraft the one primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot was hit by enemy fire this
00:32:55pilot continued to fight continued the mission and then upon exit flew his aircraft into another country
00:33:03and determined that the airplane was not landable this was one of our a-10 sandy aircraft the pilot then
00:33:10made the decision to eject over friendly territory and was quickly and recovery safely recovered and is
00:33:16doing fine after picking up dude 44 alpha the hh-60 jolly green fight was engaged by every single person
00:33:27in iran who had a small arms weapon and one of the aircraft the trailing aircraft took several hits
00:33:34the crew sustained minor injury and they are going to be fine a note for those of you that do
00:33:40not know
00:33:41what a sandy does named after the flight call sign that did this very mission in vietnam flying a1 sky
00:33:49raiders and a7 corsairs a sandy has one mission get to the survivor bring the rescue force forward
00:33:59and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy they are committed to this
00:34:06this is what they live for and this is what they've trained for over many many years the a-10
00:34:14force
00:34:14and the rescue force did fantastic did a fantastic job rescuing dude 44 alpha he was recovered friday
00:34:24afternoon as i said and the nation needs to know this this was an incredibly brave and courageous
00:34:32mission and a testament to the courage skill and tenacity of the joint force and our leaders and
00:34:40especially a daylight option having the guts to try means so much to so many meanwhile the backseater
00:34:49as the president and the secretary have said had continued to work and survive through the hours
00:34:56of daylight dude 44 bravo the backseater evaded using every means available the efforts of the
00:35:04united states military the central intelligence agency and others were attempting to find and locate
00:35:10with precision dude 44 bravo the backseater a note on on the backseater and the frontseater
00:35:18the single most important contributor to a successful rescue operation is the spirit of attack inside
00:35:28the heart of that downed aviator their will to survive their will to evade their will to recover is
00:35:36everything in this case the backseater's absolute commitment to surviving made much of our efforts
00:35:43as possible on saturday for april after establishing positive communications with the backseater we
00:35:50learned as the president said that he was injured and actively evading enemy forces and thanks to our
00:35:57interagency partners we were able to get eyes on his location and positively id him throughout this
00:36:05entire time the enemy force continued to search for 44 bravo and the joint force continued to strike them
00:36:11over and over and over again fighting off marginal weather in iran and the enemy search for a second
00:36:19time on saturday at the recommendation the centcom commander and at the approval of the secretary and
00:36:25the president we launched a rescue task force to recover dude 44 bravo again this came to the president
00:36:32and the secretary for approval this time with a much larger force package based on the time that the
00:36:39enemy had to prepare to find 44 bravo again this force was protected by a10 warthogs using the sandy call
00:36:48sign and this force had one single mission do everything they can to bring an american home
00:36:56this meant having a plan being prepared to execute that plan and more importantly being prepared for
00:37:04multiple simultaneous contingencies and because of this force's professionalism grit and determination
00:37:13fight off two enemies at the same time the enemy searching for 44 bravo and contingencies which anyone
00:37:21who has done these types of missions knows we run into every single time the force fought off both of
00:37:29those enemies incredibly well during the period of darkness on saturday and as the secretary said into
00:37:36easter sunday and into the daylight the force fought its way in and rescued dude 44 bravo they were protected
00:37:46overhead by an air armada including tactical drones strike aircraft and others the force fought through
00:37:54through multiple simultaneous contingencies something no other nation no other military can do
00:38:02and safely returned dude 44 bravo the backseater home and all other americans home as well
00:38:11at midnight 12 local eastern time easter sunday more than 50 hours after the start of this operation
00:38:20the joint personnel recovery center declared dude 44 bravo both the front and backseater return to
00:38:29friendly territory the courage demonstrated by both the pilot and the weapons system officer while isolated
00:38:37and them invading the enemy cannot be overstated their grit and war fighting tenacity is a direct result of
00:38:46the absolute trust they have in our rescue forces their training and their will to survive in return
00:38:52they always knew that we would be ordered to go get them and they always knew that we would be
00:38:59coming to get them these two operations reflect our nation's most sacred obligation to our military
00:39:06service members we leave no one behind bless you it also perfectly captures the first truth of our
00:39:14special operations forces that people are more important than hardware that is the standard we live by
00:39:22and the rescue forces that execute these missions operate under under a clear motto these things we do
00:39:31that others may live their actions were a direct embodiment of that commitment to others and i could not
00:39:39be more proud of each and every one of them today as the secretary said to our enemies this operation
00:39:48serves as a clear reminder of the capability and will of america's joint force the united states of america
00:39:56will recover our war fighters anywhere in the world under any conditions when we want to we will always bring
00:40:03overwhelming skill and firepower to every member of the joint force our interagency partners the
00:40:10leadership at centcom and our leaders at the department and above thank you i'm proud of each and every one
00:40:16of you and thankful to our deployed forces and their families and lastly and most importantly to dude 44
00:40:26welcome home job well done thank you
00:40:34pretty amazing pretty amazing and uh these two gentlemen have been uh from day one they've been
00:40:42perfecto you know i got to know general kane uh in my first term because he was able to take
00:40:49out isis
00:40:49in four weeks instead of the four-year projection that was given to me by other much lesser generals i
00:40:56said you know if i ever do this again that's going to be the head of my joint chiefs of
00:41:00staff
00:41:01and we worked it that way didn't we and it's amazing he took out isis we defeated isis in four
00:41:07weeks
00:41:07i was told it would take four years i flew to iraq to find out with the greatest equipment in
00:41:13the world
00:41:14why would it take four years and he told me sir it won't it'll take four weeks and you'll have
00:41:21time
00:41:22left over and that's exactly what happened so he's great and pete all i can say is that uh he
00:41:28was
00:41:29treated very unfairly and now those same people that treated him unfairly that fought against him
00:41:34they called me up saying what a great choice he was they said well what happened uh during his
00:41:40nomination what happened to you i'm telling you people that were not forum senators friends of
00:41:46my sir i don't think you're doing the right thing now they call me up what a choice these two
00:41:51guys are
00:41:52fantastic and john ratliff was incredible it was actually their genius that called us
00:41:59from he was 40 miles away and he said you know we're seeing something moving up in the mountain
00:42:06this is at night and they kept the camera on him for 45 minutes it wasn't moving and they said
00:42:12you know
00:42:13probably wrong but we're seeing something moving this is a mad vast mountain vast
00:42:19thick with bushes trees he said we see something moving 40 miles away
00:42:26he was a head of a human being i'm telling you it's moving and then all of a sudden 45
00:42:33minutes
00:42:33later he moved a lot stood up and they said we have him and that was really the beginning of
00:42:42something
00:42:42incredible we had an idea where he was but not specifically that's a big mountain so uh
00:42:49i want to thank the cia too i don't think they get enough credit
00:42:52for the great job they've done yes please thank you very much mr president for this great opportunity
00:43:01country it has super army you make a difference mr president thank you for your greatest leadership
00:43:09thank you i have a two quick questions mr president what was your reaction when you learned that
00:43:16kurdistan region had resumed exporting oil to the international market with your support as united
00:43:24states of america well i expected that we've gotten along with the kurds for a long time so i expected
00:43:31that another question what we what would be your reaction if the iranian people rise up against their
00:43:41regime during a case fire mr president well they should do it but again the consequences are great
00:43:47i mean they were told you if you protest you will be shot immediately you saw what happened to the
00:43:53young
00:43:54wrestler he was a great champion by the way he was a great wrestler one of the top in the
00:43:57world
00:43:58and he and his two friends were hung and all they did was say a little bit about liberty they
00:44:05wanted
00:44:06liberty and they were violently executed but the number is up to probably 45 000 people were killed
00:44:13so you know when somebody stays in a house when they know if they walk out of the house to
00:44:17protest
00:44:18they'll be immediately shot and killed and they issued that you know that was publicly issued it's not a
00:44:24secret that's why so many people say oh well why are you doing this way we can't let iran have
00:44:30a nuclear
00:44:31weapon you know we got regime change we do we're dealing with a much different regime than before
00:44:37we're doing with different people they're smarter i think they're sharper uh and far less radical
00:44:46we have regime change but uh we didn't do this for regime change we did it for the fact and
00:44:51my my view
00:44:53was very simple i saw somebody said oh he doesn't have a plan i have the best plan of all
00:44:57but i'm not
00:44:57going to tell you what my plan is you know they want me to say here's my plan we're going
00:45:02to attack
00:45:02at 9 47 in the morning and then we're going to do this and then we're going to and if
00:45:06you don't do
00:45:06that they say i have a plan these people know what the plan is everybody here knows what the plan
00:45:12is
00:45:12but uh it's uh very unfair to say you know because i don't mind being insulted i've been insulted for
00:45:18many years by the by the fake news but you can't it's so bad for the the people that are
00:45:25so per you just are
00:45:26two great and john ratliff three unbelievable people they have a plan every every single thing
00:45:33has been thought out by all of us but i can't reveal the plan to the media so you know
00:45:39but we're just
00:45:40thrilled by the success of this operation yes please thank you mr president uh you've said iranians
00:45:45would be mad if you stopped these attacks but why would they want you to blow up their infrastructure
00:45:50to cut off their power wouldn't that be punishing iranians for the actions of the regime they would be
00:45:55willing to they would be and it's suffering they would be willing to suffer that in order to have
00:46:00freedom uh the iranians have and we've had numerous intercepts please keep bombing bombs that are dropping
00:46:09near their homes please keep bombing do it and these are people that are living where the bombs are
00:46:16exploding and when we leave and we're not hitting those areas they're saying please come back come back
00:46:22come back these are the people i don't know what they do all i can tell you is they want
00:46:28freedom
00:46:29they have lived in a world that you know nothing about it's a violent horrible world where if you
00:46:37protest you are shot remember the great woman protest where they had 400 000 500 000 women and they were
00:46:44all
00:46:44enthused and they were gonna protest and everybody said oh the regime is going to come to an end and
00:46:49then
00:46:49all of a sudden boom boom five six different areas a woman would go down right between the eyes they
00:47:00had snipers they had five snipers that's all it took and those four or five hundred thousand women said oh
00:47:06my god what's that oh look over there what's that a woman shot right between the eyes
00:47:14and after five or six of them go down then you start hearing the purr through the vast number of
00:47:21people
00:47:23and then they said oh my god who would do that and they're incredible people but they've lived so
00:47:30horribly they've lived so horribly you know iran was a great country if you go back 25 years ago or
00:47:36so
00:47:36uh the persian people the they're incredible smart brilliant actually and i know so many i know coming
00:47:44from new york originally i i know so many people from around they're incredible people incredible energy and
00:47:51and uh very very brilliant people and but when you're standing in a group and protesting and you
00:47:57have a woman in the case of the woman remember the great woman march everybody who said oh this is
00:48:01the end
00:48:02of the country and then snipers selectively picked every single one was shot right between the eyes
00:48:10from a long distance they were on top of buildings nobody even knew where they were where they coming
00:48:15from this wasn't like a machine gun which is also very bad they've done that too they did that recently
00:48:20this was snipers sitting on the top of buildings aiming and hitting women and when they see people go
00:48:29down and all of a sudden there's a riot in the reverse direction and they never came out again
00:48:35and a lot of the the news doesn't talk about that they talk about oh women's rights you want to
00:48:40see
00:48:41women's rights you're not going to see it there it's amazing when i see some of the stupid people like
00:48:46you know aoc plus three all that group they talk about oh freedom for iran they don't tell you the
00:48:53real
00:48:53facts women men gays how about gays for iran they kill the gays they throw them off buildings
00:49:03so i wonder what what's going on i can only say this they want us to keep bombing even if
00:49:10it
00:49:11jeopardized because their life is in much greater danger they want freedom for iran but it's very hard
00:49:16for them to protest i actually tell them i said don't go out i fully understand nobody in this room
00:49:21would
00:49:21go out i don't think there's any because frankly it's not a question of bravery we're all brave
00:49:25right you're brave i'm brave we're all brave but we're also intelligent if you have people shooting
00:49:32at you expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every
00:49:39single time and you're looking here and you're seeing and you're looking here you're out of there i
00:49:45don't care who it is mark meredith fox news uh go ahead america's watching uh no um can we go
00:49:55back
00:49:55to the weekend first off was everyone on board with the operation or were there people that were trying
00:50:00to talk you out of going through with the operation this weekend not everybody was on board somebody
00:50:04else within no there was military people very professional that preferred not doing it these
00:50:10two were totally important which was very important they weren't it would have a little difficulty
00:50:16but uh no there were military people that said you just don't do this you don't go into the heart
00:50:22of a very powerful military you know this is hey you have countries and countries you have some countries
00:50:28where military is not there so wrong so this whole thing is militarized like nobody's ever seen before
00:50:34half the people are wearing uniforms uh and we had we had people within the military usually it's not
00:50:42done that's one of the reasons you know i was surprised somebody said it's the only time it's ever
00:50:46been done i said that's not possible but it is possible because you're going into hundreds of thousands
00:50:52of soldiers along the path i mean look at some of the helicopters how they got hit so yeah there
00:51:00were
00:51:00people within the military that said it's a wise and don't forget how many men did you send all
00:51:04together approximately uh for the operation i'd love to keep that a secret okay well we are
00:51:12but i will tell you the number i'll keep it a secret but it was hundreds and hundreds of these
00:51:18people
00:51:19that's pretty good is he central is he central casting but hundreds of people went into this journey
00:51:27hundreds of people could have been killed forget about the equipment a lot of equipment nobody cares
00:51:31hundreds of people could have been killed so we had people that were within the military that said
00:51:37this is not a wise and i understood that but i decided to do it was there a point that
00:51:43they were
00:51:44going to that you were thinking there's too much on the line and somebody was saying maybe we abort this
00:51:48now and wait i mean given the resource like the general said it seemed like there was so much on
00:51:53the line here you must have been thinking well this could have completely changed so the
00:51:56first one which was in many ways as dangerous as the second i guess it gets because we're flying over
00:52:04daylight you know we're the best at the world at night we have goggles that nobody we have goggles
00:52:09i've tried them unbelievable i see better with the goggles at night with then i see without them
00:52:15during daylight i mean daylight today we have a beautiful day you see just as well with goggles in
00:52:22in many ways it's enhanced so we have the best in the world so it's much safer for us to
00:52:27for us to do
00:52:28it at night whereas other people no other country has that capability they don't have the they don't
00:52:33have that particular piece of equipment like we do but when i was told flying and in daylight i think
00:52:41we
00:52:41flew seven hours over iran and that's a long time over unbelievably hostile territory where they have nothing but
00:52:49weapons we took out their anti-aircraft which is great we took out their radar which is great we
00:52:55took out a lot but they still have you know what hit this one was a shoulder handheld shoulder missile
00:53:01heat-seeking missile so it's not like you know they're totally whatever but but and they have probably a
00:53:08little luck because you got to get lucky but they shot it and it got sucked in right by the
00:53:14engine but
00:53:15these guys were out of there they were great their timing was great but no i was told that this
00:53:20is a
00:53:20very uh dangerous mission i understand they didn't say it's a foolish mission they said you know we're
00:53:26going to be sacrificing hundreds of people do this this is i mean you have tankers that are flying over
00:53:32this area so that because the flight was so long they had to refuel it's a very dangerous mission
00:53:38i just felt it was worth it if you would have told me that we would have been successful gotten
00:53:43both and
00:53:44nobody was even essentially injured i would have said that would be impossible yeah mr president
00:53:49thank you very much uh thank you sir we'll come back okay uh given that you are now dealing you
00:53:55say with a more reasonable um less uh extreme leadership in iran what does that mean for the
00:54:02protesters for the human rights movement in that country after this conflict what's your expectation
00:54:07yeah if they assume control if we do something and they assume control i think it's very positive a big
00:54:12step uh i don't think you'd see the radicalization that you have seen in the last look what happened
00:54:19i mean women are being executed because they're not properly clothed they say they're not properly
00:54:25clothed and they execute the women they absolutely they shoot them right on the street
00:54:31no you have a much different group of people now i'm not saying we are dealing with them
00:54:36uh essentially they have till eight o'clock tomorrow night eastern time but we are dealing with them i
00:54:44think it's going well mr whitkoff is here and jd is involved in the dealing mr whitkoff is sitting right
00:54:51here and i think it's going fine but we'll have to see you have to understand we've been dealing with
00:54:56these people for 47 years i'm standing here with a much more powerful iran as of a month ago not
00:55:05anymore right now they are decapitated but i'm standing here a month ago with a much more powerful
00:55:12iran than it was at any point during 47 years this should have been handled by seven presidents a lot
00:55:19of presidents and those presidents are saying now every one of them to their friends
00:55:25we should have done this a long time ago so it's not something i like doing
00:55:29it's very dangerous and we're getting them at the height of of their strength if i didn't
00:55:35terminate the barack hussein obama iran nuclear deal they would have had a don't forget that was
00:55:41a path to a nuclear weapon remember this he chose iran over israel pure and simple how and how
00:55:50israel can vote for a democrat is if you're jewish in new york city or any place else in this
00:55:57country
00:55:57and how you can vote for a democrat is in believe because he chose iran a very hostile iran remember
00:56:06when he filled up a 757 with cash billions of dollars of cash and he sent it over to them
00:56:12then they gave
00:56:13them tens of billions of dollars he chose iran over israel and really the arab world if you look
00:56:20because you know the other saudi arabia qatar uae i mean you take a look i mean i can add
00:56:27kuwait and
00:56:27i can add bahrain and you can add others he chose such an unlikely candidate nobody could believe it
00:56:36frankly if you're going to choose between iraq and iran he should have chosen he should have
00:56:41befriended iraq he went in the exact opposite direction of of all thinking and he made a terrible
00:56:49mistake but that was a road to a nuclear weapon and when i terminated that everyone said oh he terminated
00:56:57it it was one of the best things we ever did because he had a road to a nuclear weapon
00:57:00and
00:57:01it was going to it was a very short-term deal you know countries don't do 10-year deals countries
00:57:06do hundreds of years you don't do a 10-year deal for a country you need this isn't you're a
00:57:12landlord
00:57:12you're renting a store on on a certain street and you give somebody a five-year or 10-year lease
00:57:17this is a country it was a short-term deal it was ready to expire i terminated it before it
00:57:23expired took a lot of heat and it was one of the best things they ever did because he would
00:57:27have had a nuclear weapon then he would have had another nuclear weapon had those beautiful b2
00:57:32bombers not gone in eight months ago and obliterated that said and by the way the word is obliteration
00:57:38cnn said well maybe it wasn't complete it was so complete that they still haven't been able to get it
00:57:44it was obliteration but if we didn't hit them that was a courageous decision too because we had all
00:57:51those planes flying in at night with very little cover unbelievable stealth planes and they were able
00:57:58to do their job if we didn't do that iran would have had a nuclear weapon at a high level
00:58:05either
00:58:05one of those two instances and if they did in my opinion i told this to bb netanyahu yesterday
00:58:13israel would have been extinguished large portions of the middle east would have been extinguished whether
00:58:20it's saudi arabia qatar uae or others and you saw that with thousands of missiles raining down upon
00:58:27them they didn't think they were going to be hit they thought they'd be watching us fight and all
00:58:32of a sudden uae got hit by 1500 missiles he would have taken them out also and they were powerful
00:58:40if i didn't come along and terminate the obama deal which was terrible the iran nuclear deal was a
00:58:46to a road to a nuclear weapon a big one unlimited legally i terminated it without even much thought
00:58:55it was so easy i terminated that and then the b2 bombers and i did one other thing i had
00:59:01killed
00:59:04kassam solemini who was an evil genius and the reason i did it i heard he was going to knock
00:59:11out
00:59:11five of our military bases and had he lived i believe we would be fighting perhaps a different
00:59:22iran right now because because he's never he's never been replaced you know and i also i did one
00:59:28other but that this one was not picked up osama bin laden if you read my book i said you
00:59:35got to take
00:59:35him out one year before the world trade center came down so i wish you'd read the book but you
00:59:43as
00:59:43a president to be a good president i believe you have to have good instincts and a lot of this
00:59:49is
00:59:49instinct yeah please thank you so much mr president last week last week you suggested that europe should
00:59:57take the lead on reopening the strait of harmuz uh has circumstances changed now that you're
01:00:02issuing a direct 48 hour i mean 48 hour ultimatum and secondly would a new new ceasefire include
01:00:09israel or would it just be between iran i can't talk about ceasefire but i can tell you that we
01:00:14have
01:00:15a active willing participant on the other side they would like to be able to make a deal i can't
01:00:22say
01:00:22any more than if i get it right for you mr president thank you so much you've listed the goals
01:00:27excuse me please go ahead you've listed the goals thank you mr president who you with who you with
01:00:31my name is diar kurda i'm with the largest kurdish media out there through the media network
01:00:35it's based in iran mr president you said before that you don't want the kurdish forces to take
01:00:42iran and be harmed do you still want them to stay away or what role do you expect them to
01:00:47play now i'd
01:00:49rather have them stay away i'd rather have them stay away because i think they bring with them
01:00:54some problems and some difficulties and i don't think they bring death i mean you know to themselves
01:01:00but i'd rather have them stay
01:01:05go ahead thank you mr president for the question um deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure
01:01:10violate the geneva conventions and international law who are you with i'm with the new york times
01:01:15zolan from the new york times are you feeling the failing are you concerned circulation way down at
01:01:20the new york times are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount
01:01:25i hope i don't have to do it but again i just said 47 years they've been negotiating with these
01:01:33people
01:01:33they're great negotiators and because they're not going to have a nuclear weapon and if somebody that
01:01:40takes my place someday is weak and ineffective which possibly that will happen because we had
01:01:46numerous presidents that were weak ineffective and afraid afraid of iran we're never going to let
01:01:53iran have a nuclear weapon and if you think it's okay for people that are sick of mind that are
01:02:00tough smart and sick really sick ideal uh you know from from a policy standpoint from a
01:02:09stamp any which way you want to say mentally these are disturbed people if you think i'm going to
01:02:15allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon you can tell your friends at the new york
01:02:22times not going to happen
01:02:27means violating international law
01:02:29you no longer have credibility the new york times because the new york times said oh trump won't
01:02:34win the election and i won in a landslide i won every swing state new york times said oh trump
01:02:38won't win the election new york times has no credibility the credibility they have is it used
01:02:44to be all the news that's fit to print a great the old gray lady it was great but they're
01:02:49they're
01:02:49running on past fumes and you can't keep doing that you have to be able to give the correct news
01:02:55and people like you who i know are fake you're fake go ahead please your messaging on the war has
01:03:03moved
01:03:03from the war is coming to an end to we're going to be bombing iran to the stone ages and
01:03:08we've
01:03:08heard a range of those kind of messages so are you so which is it are you winding this down
01:03:14are you
01:03:15escalating i can't tell you i don't know i can't it depends what they do this is a critical period
01:03:19they have a period of well till tomorrow at eight o'clock i gave them an extension they asked for
01:03:27an
01:03:27extension of seven days right i said steve give them 10 days 10 days is up actually today so i
01:03:37gave
01:03:3711 11 i guess indirectly i thought it was inappropriate the day after easter i want to be a nice
01:03:42person
01:03:44they have till tomorrow now we'll see what happens i can tell you they're negotiating we think in good
01:03:50faith we're going to find out we're getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be
01:03:58ended because it affects them also a lot of people are affected by this
01:04:02but we're giving them uh we're giving them till tomorrow eight o'clock eastern time and after that
01:04:10they're going to have no bridges they're going to have no power plants stone ages yeah
01:04:21cnn fake are you willing to make a deal that does not include reopening the strait of
01:04:27or is that now a top priority i would say it's a very big priority because um see that's that's
01:04:34one thing that's a little different than other than we can bomb the hell out of them we can knock
01:04:39them out for a loop but to close the strait all you need is one terrorist that somehow has a
01:04:46truck
01:04:46loaded with because you can carry them in trucks large trucks a water mine drop them in the water
01:04:54and now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars to don't worry about the mine
01:04:58you can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water so it's not like the rest
01:05:04we can
01:05:05knock out their military we already have we've knocked out their navy we've knocked out their
01:05:09air force completely knocked out 158 ships in three days we've knocked out even their mine droppers
01:05:16they don't have any mine droppers anymore but they put them on other boats and they could drop them
01:05:20i'm not even sure they have any mines there by the way i'm not sure i'm personally they say there
01:05:25might be eight i don't know i don't know i think there might be none because they're very good
01:05:30bullshit artists that's why for 47 years they've been bullshitting other presidents and they haven't
01:05:36done the job and people are living in hell you live in that country they're living in hell no i
01:05:42think that
01:05:43uh 47 years of this stuff is long enough they're at the weakest point they've ever been
01:05:51they have no navy they have no air force they have no anti-aircraft
01:05:56weaponry they have no radar they have no communication in fact the biggest problem we
01:06:00have in our negotiation is that they can't communicate i said to steve what are they saying
01:06:05sir they can't communicate they have no method of communication
01:06:10so we're doing we're communicating like they used to communicate 2 000 years ago with children
01:06:15bringing a note back and forth they have no communication but all i want to see is i want
01:06:22to have a safe world and you're not going to have a safe world israel will be gone the middle
01:06:28east will
01:06:28be gone and then they're coming for europe and i have to tell you i'm very disappointed in nato
01:06:34very i think that nato i think it's a mark on nato that will never disappear never disappear in my
01:06:40mind you know they're coming to see me on wednesday they're going to say oh we'll do this we'll do
01:06:44that
01:06:44now they all of a sudden want to send things you know but they said it loud and clear at
01:06:49the
01:06:50beginning when i spoke to uk of all i would have said they would have been there first because they've
01:06:54been they're the oldest and i say yeah i'd love to have a little help said no sir we'd rather
01:07:00wait
01:07:00till you win i said i don't need help after we win they have two old broken aircraft carriers barely
01:07:06work i said i guess we can use them who the hell knows i called the general he didn't even
01:07:11want
01:07:11he said we don't really need them we got we got the ss abraham lincoln sir we don't need them
01:07:17do you know we have in terms of technology we had one day 101 missiles going at 2 700 miles
01:07:25an hour
01:07:26aimed at the abraham lincoln 101 missiles out of 101 missiles 101 missiles were shot down
01:07:37unbelievable technology 10 years ago five years ago i don't know if that would have been possible
01:07:42but 10 years ago that wouldn't have been that wouldn't have been possible uh 101 missiles heading
01:07:49to a ship that's not that far off the coast and out of the 101 missiles we shot down all
01:07:57101 we have
01:07:59weaponry uh the patriots are unbelievable we have weaponry that's unbelievable go ahead please
01:08:10thank you mr president um you said earlier today during the eng roll that you would like to take
01:08:15iran's oil but americans want u.s forces home correct what's that trade i had my choice if i had
01:08:22my choice yeah because i'm a businessman first with venezuela as you know the war was over in about 45
01:08:30minutes and we have great people running venezuela very good people i mean the relationship is good
01:08:38and we are a partner with venezuela and we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels hundreds of
01:08:45millions over 100 million barrels already is in houston refined and out and paid paid for that war
01:08:54many many times over many times you know the old days to the victim okay you know that to the
01:09:02uh to
01:09:03the winner belong the spoils go the spoils and i've said why don't we use it to the victor go
01:09:10the spoils
01:09:11and we don't have that we haven't had that in this country probably in a hundred years because
01:09:15even the second world war you look at the second world war we didn't have it with the second world
01:09:20we helped rebuild all those countries we rebuilt germany how about germany telling us germany telling
01:09:25us that uh well it's not their war we had nothing to do with getting they wanted me to go
01:09:31and tell
01:09:32them everything i was doing we didn't know anything about it well if i would have told them they would
01:09:37have leaked it and we wouldn't have been nearly as successful possibly right but to the victor belong the
01:09:43spoils so we haven't heard we haven't heard that in i think maybe hundreds of years now with venezuela
01:09:51and we just so you understand the people of venezuela they say if i ran for president of venezuela
01:09:58i'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in venezuela so after i'm finished with this i can go
01:10:03to venezuela i will quickly learn spanish it won't take too long i'm good at language and i will go
01:10:08to
01:10:08venezuela i'm going to run for president but we're very happy with the president-elect that we have
01:10:14right now the the the people that are running it if you remember bush with iraq they fired the generals
01:10:22they fired the police they fired the people that worked in their equivalent of the white house they
01:10:27fired everybody and you know what they had they had a mess and you know what happened isis formed
01:10:32those generals and those soldiers got together the police got together they all got together they
01:10:37formed isis not going to happen with us so uh venezuela has been an incredible it's been an
01:10:44incredible situation we went in we were very successful military power like nobody's ever seen the
01:10:50general uh venezuelan general said i was on that site i said i've never seen ferocity like that i've
01:10:57been doing this for 40 years he said i've never seen it they they hit us from 17 different it
01:11:02was
01:11:03they were all set they saw that big beautiful aircraft carrier the ford in that case and planes
01:11:10were pouring off it at one o'clock in the morning so typically when you see that late at night
01:11:15you know
01:11:17you could be in trouble right and we were already they had their equipment it was russian and they
01:11:24had chinese equipment it was all set they were going to give us a fight he said and then they
01:11:29came
01:11:30and they came at speeds like we've never seen and they came at 17 different angles the general and
01:11:37his people that was a lot of angles they hit him from every angle he said we knew it was
01:11:43over in three
01:11:44minutes we were waiting for them their equipment didn't work and there's a reason it didn't work
01:11:50someday we'll explain that to people they pressed the button nothing happened they pressed it again and
01:11:56again nothing happened and he said we knew this whole thing was over in three minutes we've never
01:12:01seen any he used the word ferocity the ferocity of these planes from 17 different angles and it was
01:12:09over they went inside and remember that was on a military base with thousands of soldiers
01:12:14and those soldiers looked and they said get the hell out of here thousands we didn't have thousands we
01:12:20had like 200 people so we have a great military and i'll tell you what somehow this rescue captured
01:12:29the world's attention more so than normally you're talking about two people but this rescue captured
01:12:36the world's attention but we did it in venezuela that was amazing and now we have a very bad man
01:12:42in
01:12:43prison and going to trial i mean he he released aside from the drugs which he was terrible maduro
01:12:50released hundreds of thousands of people from jails into our country drug dealers murderers the worst
01:12:59people in the world were released into our country because we had a stupid president who
01:13:04probably didn't know and we had a border czar who never went to the border and never once called our
01:13:09great
01:13:10border patrol agents right not once kamala she never called the border patrol she never said how
01:13:15we doing i used to call the border patrol guys every day you can ask them paul ask any one
01:13:19of them
01:13:21brandon ask them all the time how are we doing how are we doing and we now i'm proud to
01:13:25say have a
01:13:26totally sealed border nine months nobody is coming through our but and nobody even tries because they
01:13:30know they're not going to get through so we don't have caravans anymore all right so maybe one or two
01:13:36more
01:13:36it will be done mr president are you allowed to or are you willing to end this conflict with iran
01:13:44charging tolls for passage through the street uh us charging tolls iran what about us charging
01:13:51tolls is that something you're considering i'd rather do that than let them have them run why shouldn't
01:13:56we we're the winner we won okay they are militarily defeated the only thing they have is the psychology
01:14:04of oh we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water all right no we i mean we
01:14:09have a concept
01:14:09where we'll charge tolls okay i thought you meant your question your question your question would
01:14:16your question would have been more accurate if you said us go ahead thank you very much just to clarify
01:14:21in order for iran to successfully meet your deadline tomorrow do they have to make a deal open the
01:14:27street or both we have to have a deal that's acceptable to me and part of that deal is going
01:14:34to be we want free traffic of oil and everything
01:14:37mr president thank you very much you've said glory be to god in this conflict do you believe that god
01:14:47supports the united states actions and i do because god is good because god is good and god wants to
01:14:53see
01:14:54people taken care of god doesn't like what's happening i don't like what's happening everyone says i
01:15:00enjoy i don't enjoy this i don't enjoy these two guys don't enjoy it you know people say oh
01:15:04boy they're so tough they don't want they don't like i don't like seeing people killed i've ended
01:15:09eight wars nobody's ever done it the person who won the nobel prize came to me and said you deserve
01:15:16the nobel prize she announced that when they announced they said goes to maria she's a great
01:15:22person really a good person she said no no no this is ridiculous they gave me the nobel prize
01:15:30president trump ended eight wars i could go over every one of them including india and pakistan
01:15:35where the prime minister of pakistan said president trump saved from 30 to 50 million lives
01:15:42that makes me much happier than what we're doing right now that makes me much happier we have one
01:15:48more to end by the way
01:15:54president um you called the yesterday in your truth social you called the iranians crazy bastards
01:15:59true um what is your response to critics who say i don't care about what is your response to critics
01:16:06who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues i haven't
01:16:10heard that but if that's the case you're going to have to have more people like me because our country
01:16:15was
01:16:15being ripped off on trade or everything for many years until i came along so if that's the case
01:16:22you're going to have to have more people dashi go ahead you said that very little is off limits in
01:16:28iran
01:16:28as far as targeting including power plants bridges you've mentioned those very little is often are
01:16:34there certain kinds of civilian targets though i'm thinking i don't want to tell you that i don't want
01:16:38to tell you that we have we have a plan because of the power of our military
01:16:45where every bridge in iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night where every power plant
01:16:55in iran will be out of business burning exploding and never to be used again i mean complete demolition
01:17:03by 12 o'clock and it'll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to we don't want
01:17:08that to happen
01:17:09we may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation and you know what if that's the case
01:17:16the last thing we want to do is start with power plants which are among the most expensive thing and
01:17:20bridges you saw the bridge the bridge one we were very close to a deal and then i got a
01:17:27call from
01:17:29mr whitkoff mr kushner and jd
01:17:33saying i think they're breaking the deal i said tell them that's okay don't worry about it but tell
01:17:40them to look out their window and watch and within 45 minutes i gave the order to knock out the
01:17:46biggest
01:17:47bridge i gave the order to knock out the biggest bridge in i believe the middle east but the
01:17:52biggest bridge in iran and within 10 minutes after i gave that order that bridge was
01:17:59was over so so do i want to do that no do i want to destroy their infrastructure no
01:18:06it will take them a hundred years to rebuild right now if we left today
01:18:12it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it would never be as good as it was
01:18:17and the only way they're going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius of the
01:18:22united
01:18:22states of america
01:18:26you voiced your displeasure with nato in the past is there a danger to the u.s not being the
01:18:32de facto of
01:18:33the leader of the alliance and then other powers within the alliance then getting the decision-making
01:18:38when it comes to wars and nuclear weapons no it's not a danger nato's look we went to nato
01:18:45i didn't ask very strongly i just said hey if you want to help great no no no we will
01:18:49not help
01:18:50i said that's all right you don't want to help because i've always said nato is a paper tiger
01:18:55see nato is a paper tiger putin's not afraid of nato putin's afraid of us very afraid of us
01:19:02and he's explained it to me a lot of times i got to know him very well i know very
01:19:06well
01:19:06uh nato is a paper tiger nato is us and when we needed them but we didn't need them by
01:19:13the way
01:19:14we didn't need them obviously because they haven't helped at all just the opposite they've actually
01:19:19gone out of their way not to help they didn't even want to give us landing strips think of it
01:19:25and it's
01:19:25not just nato you know who else didn't help us south korea didn't help us you know who else didn't
01:19:30help us australia didn't help us you know who else didn't help us japan we've got 50 000 soldiers
01:19:38in japan to protect them from north korea we have 45 000 soldiers in south korea to protect us from
01:19:48kim jong-un who i get along with very well as you know do you notice he said very nice
01:19:52things about me
01:19:53he used to call joe biden a mentally retarded person okay so don't tell me about your stuff
01:20:00joe biden he said he's a mentally retarded person he was so nasty to joe biden it was terrible but
01:20:06to
01:20:06me he likes trump and you notice how nice things are with north korea it's very nice but we have
01:20:1245 000
01:20:13people soldiers in harm's way and right next to kim jong-un with a lot of nuclear weapons
01:20:2045 which should have never happened if a certain president i'm not going to mention this president
01:20:26because i happen to like him believe it or not but if a certain president did his job kim jong
01:20:31-un
01:20:31would not have nuclear weapons right now but they were all afraid to do their job properly
01:20:36but just to conclude and just to finish japan didn't help us australia didn't help us south korea
01:20:43didn't help us and then you get to nato nato didn't help us there were some countries that did now
01:20:49countries that have been good now you could also say they're got to be a little bit more involved
01:20:54because they're in the territory but saudi arabia has been excellent qatar has been excellent
01:20:58uae has been excellent bahrain kuwait i mean kuwait did shoot down three of our planes
01:21:05the only planes really that we lost it was friendly fire they call it i call it unfriendly fire
01:21:11they unfortunately didn't know how to use our our great patriots the pilots said what kind of a
01:21:19missile is coming at us patriot boom they got out because they know a patriot never misses
01:21:25so they had beautiful patriots there were planes heading in their direction unfortunately they decided
01:21:32to shoot those planes they were our planes so uh you know nato is a paper tiger now he's coming
01:21:39to
01:21:40see me on wednesday as you know he's a wonderful guy secretary general is great and mark ruta
01:21:47he's a great person but he's got and you know it all began with if you want to know the
01:21:52truth greenland
01:21:54we want greenland they don't want to give it to us and i said bye-bye okay thank you very
01:22:00much
01:22:00everybody
01:22:31you
01:22:32you
01:22:33you
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