Trump downplays Strait of Hormuz, notes ‘alternatives’ for oil routes being built across Middle East
Trump describes war against Iran as ‘small potatoes,’ says he calls it a ‘military conflict’
President Donald Trump
said Friday that he characterizes the fight against Iran as a “military conflict” because “it’s small potatoes for us.”
Trump made the remark at the White House after Vice President JD Vance said a day earlier that “I wouldn’t call it a war” as there was “no active shooting” at the time.
“Well, I’ll tell you what. A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” the president said when asked about Vance’s comments.
“We did Venezuela and we did this in Venezuela. We lost nobody. And this we lost 18 people. And in Vietnam, you lost 100,000 people. And in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people,” Trump continued. “I would say that it’s intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes.”
“So I heard what he said, and it was interesting because I think that there’s a lot of truth that we’re not fighting right now. There’s no fighting,” Trump added. “We’re taking out a lot of oil. We control the Hormuz Strait, and we control it very strongly. We did a hit on certain areas around the Hormuz Strait. We took out their radar, as you know. You know that very well. We took out some aircraft. We took out some other things that protect for them, used to protect the Hormuz Strait when they had it under very tight control.”
“So I can understand what he’s saying. It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war,” Trump concluded.