Iran War News LIVE Update: Trump calls conflict ‘small potatoes’, threatens Pickaxe Mountain strike ‘very soon’ | Today’s news
Iran War News LIVE Updates: US President Donald Trump has called the war with Iran “small potatoes” and said only 18 Americans had been killed compared to 100,000 in Vietnam. The comments come a day after Vice President JD Vance said he would not describe the armed actions as a “war” because major combat operations ended months ago. Asked about those remarks on Friday, Trump agreed.
“I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes to us. It’s not a big deal,” Trump said. “You know, we do strike occasionally. So I heard what he said and it was interesting because I think there’s a lot of truth that we’re not fighting right now,” Trump said.
“We have lost 18 great souls”
Trump again compared the death toll of 18 US service members to the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars, which have lasted for years and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of US troops, although he acknowledged that “we lost 18 great souls”.
“One is too many. But we lost tens of thousands of people in Vietnam. We lost a lot in Afghanistan,” he said. “What we’ve done is amazing. We’ve taken over Venezuela and we’ve basically taken over Iran.”
American attack on Pickaxe Mountain
The US may very soon hit Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday. Located near Iran’s badly damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, the mountain is a heavily fortified site that hosts two deeply buried tunnel complexes.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump defended the months-long US military campaign against the Islamic Republic, saying its main goal was to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“Now we’re five months in. And you know what we’ve done in five months? They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon; we’ve done that,” Trump said. “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, because if it did, you probably wouldn’t be around very long,” he added.
Trump then warned that Pickaxe Mountain could become a target if the US saw activity there.
“We may be hitting the pickaxe very soon, because if something was going on with the pickaxe,” Trump said, adding that U.S. intelligence agencies are closely monitoring activity on the ground.
“We know everybody who’s around Pickaxe; we know everybody who’s around all over Iran. And if something goes wrong, we’re going to hit them; we’re going to hit them hard,” Trump said.
Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for all the latest US-Iran war news.
