Trump: US WILL BE Attacking Iran Again Today, ‘They Keep Playing Us For Suckers’
By JACOB MAGID
US President Donald Trump said the US would be attacking Iran again on Wednesday, indicating that Tuesday night’s strikes against the regime were only the first part of Washington’s retaliation against the Islamic Republic for shooting down an American military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.
“We’re going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard,” Trump said in the Oval Office, when asked to explain his Truth Social post from earlier today, when he said that Iran would have to “pay a price” for taking too long to reach a deal.
“We hit him hard yesterday, and we hit him again hard today — in case you miss it because you don’t turn on your television set,” Trump told reporters.
US Central Command said late Tuesday night that it had targeted Iranian military assets in response to the helicopter downing. This led Iran to target several US military bases throughout the region on Wednesday with missiles and drones.
Trump again claimed that the sides were close to a deal that would prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, before saying that Tehran has been dragging its feet on signing the deal. The US leader, on May 24, claimed the agreement was largely negotiated, and for weeks before that also asserted that an agreement was on the verge of being signed.
With the president now indicating that the US was prioritizing retaliation against Iran, it would appear that a signing was not imminent.
“They keep playing us for suckers,” Trump said, adding that Iran would be facing a far worse retaliation had the pilots in the downed helicopter been injured by the Iranian drone, which he claimed was “a bomb that was lodged in the helicopter that didn’t explode.”
Asked whether he’s again considering attacking Iranian energy sites, Trump declined to answer definitively, saying he could “knock them out” if he wanted.
He insisted a deal with Iran has been “fully negotiated,” but that Tehran is stalling on signing because it knows how “significant” the concessions would be.
He added that the US has managed to get ships through the Strait of Hormuz, including 22 last night, thanks to Iran not having a functional radar system.
Earlier, Trump warned that Iran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations, saying that he may order fresh strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges.
Iran has “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now they will have to pay the price!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Iran’s military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their navy and air force, doesn’t even exist anymore,” Trump insisted, despite Iran’s successful downing of an Apache attack helicopter, and only hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, all of which host US troops, came under Iranian fire.
“They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is DEAD!” he declared.
“I may keep going [militarily],” he later said in comments in a phone interview cited by Fox News, which reported that Trump was “getting closer” to ordering strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges.
“They had a chance to sign a deal and survive,” the US president added.
The comments again underlined the American leader’s whipsaw approach to the war, after he suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in “two or three days.” Trump’s comments also came as an official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that Qatari negotiators traveled to Tehran on Wednesday morning in an effort to finalize an agreement, after consultations with the United States.
Trump had initially downplayed the helicopter incident during a phone interview on Tuesday, saying it “wasn’t a big deal,” since “the pilot is fine.” But hours later, he posted that “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”
Early Wednesday, US fighter jets targeted “air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites,” US Central Command said, in what it described as a “proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
CENTCOM later said the strikes hit Iranian air defenses, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian…
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 9, 2026
Iran strikes back
Iran’s top diplomat vowed that there would be a response, and Tehran later claimed attacks against US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.
Jordan said it shot down five incoming missiles, which Iran said targeted the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base. The base has hosted American F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft. Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency reported there were no injuries.
The first 4 ballistic missiles that Iran launched targeted the vicinity of Amman, Jordan. Air defence activity was seen near the city.
This explains why no sirens sounded in the Gulf States initially.
The other 1-2 missiles targeted Bahrain. https://t.co/prZ9pdZiy6 pic.twitter.com/SImG4m4I0S
— AMK Mapping ???????? (@AMK_Mapping_) June 10, 2026
Bahrain and Kuwait said they intercepted incoming fire, without elaborating.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the American attacks as a violation of Iranian sovereignty in calls with his counterparts from Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and emphasized the inherent right of self-defense, including reciprocal action,” according to a post on his office’s Telegram channel.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in televised comments that in light of the new attacks, Iran would review its stance on negotiations to end the war.
According to Iranian state media, Wednesday’s US strikes near Bandar Abbas caused thousands of Iranians in the southern port town of Sirik to lose access to drinking water. The reports said airstrikes hit two reservoirs in the area.
???? Video of the attack by the US army on drinking water tanks in the Bemani district of Sirik County, Hormozgan https://t.co/ME1oPhKxAc pic.twitter.com/NYBuWZxWEJ
— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) June 10, 2026
“Unfortunately, following this attack, 20,000 residents of the region have lost access to safe drinking water, and with temperatures ranging between 45 and 50 degrees Celsius, conditions have become extremely difficult and critical for local inhabitants,” Iran’s state television quoted local water company officials as saying.
“The destruction of these reservoirs has created a major problem for the region’s water supply network,” it added, noting that the area had insufficient groundwater to replace the damaged reservoirs.
Efforts were underway to find alternatives for villages affected in the area, according to a senior water company official in the southern province of Hormozgan.
Cargo ship fights off gunmen near Yemen; first Europe-bound tanker leaves Hormuz
Guards aboard a cargo ship off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden exchanged fire with gunmen in a small boat and repelled their attack, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
The UKMTO later reported a fire in the engine room of a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz, saying one person was hurt and two others were missing. It wasn’t immediately known what caused the fire.
Tehran has continued to block most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Washington, in turn, has imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports.
However, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic through the strait was rising “very meaningfully” during the ceasefire.
Backing up his claim, maritime data published Wednesday showed that a tanker carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil was heading toward Europe after leaving the Gulf at the end of May, the first such shipment since March.
The Advantage Victory, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, passed through the Strait of Hormuz on May 27 without indicating its destination, data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler showed.
The vessel revealed its destination only on Monday, with its AIS signal indicating “NL RTM,” the code for Rotterdam in the Netherlands, one of Europe’s biggest ports. It is scheduled to arrive on July 7.
The tanker, which was loaded with Iraqi oil at Basra on February 24 and March 1, is currently off the coast of Madagascar, according to its transponder.
It was the first tanker to traverse the Strait of Hormuz with oil heading to Europe since March 1, a day after the US and Israel began the war on Iran with massive strikes across the country.
Around 103 oil tankers have left the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, carrying a total of 185 million barrels of crude oil, according to Kpler data.
From the beginning of the war until mid-April, oil leaving the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz was primarily Iranian, at 81 percent. Since mid-April, when the US blockade of Iranian ports began, tankers have come mainly from other Gulf countries (84 percent), with most unloading for clients in Asia or the Middle East.
The destination of some tankers, primarily Iranian, is unknown.
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