Trump: I don’t trust Iran, U.S. has ‘total control’ over Hormuz

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he’s under no illusions as to the trustworthiness of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“I don’t trust Iran. Why—are you saying I trust Iran? I’m the last person to trust Iran. They’ve lied to me constantly,” the president said at the Joint Base Andrews air base in Maryland.

“We have total control over the Hormuz strait right now. They don’t have control. We have total control. We own it. And at some point maybe they’ll do something and then get blown away. But right now we’re in a very good position” vis-à-vis the regime, he continued.

“We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years ... and they’re no longer the bully of the Middle East,” he added.

U.S. Central Command on Tuesday said that its forces prevented a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz from breaking the U.S. blockade imposed on Iranian ports, disabling its steering gear.

A U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two hellfire missiles into the Panama-flagged M/V Vela Nova’s engine room “after the ship’s civilian crew ignored repeated warnings from American forces,” CENTCOM wrote on X.

It went on to say that as of Tuesday, U.S. forces had redirected 55 commercial ships attempting to violate the blockade, disabled three non-compliant vessels, and boarded two.

‘Masterful operation’ to keep Trump safe in Ankara

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke to Newsmax television channel on Tuesday night about a recent The Washington Post report that the Iranian regime attempted to assassinate Trump during his visit to the NATO Summit in Ankara last month.

Huckabee praised Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency for its role in informing the U.S. Secret Service of the Iranian plot.

“In this particular case, the Israeli Mossad was one of the reasons they knew that the plot was real. When people say what’s the benefit of our relationship [with Israel]—there’s one right there,” the diplomat related.

The Post reported that Trump used Air Force One as a decoy for his departure from Ankara while in fact he boarded an alternate military aircraft, with journalists and even some White House staff members believing they were on the same plane as the president.

The report described the threat as “credible,” but did not go into further details.

“The president is obviously the most targeted person in the world,” Huckabee said, adding that the Secret Service’s ruse to exit Trump from Turkey was a “masterful operation.”

Meanwhile, Iran reiterated on Tuesday that it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States ends its war and blockade, releases frozen Iranian assets and agrees to ceasefires across the region, including in Gaza and Lebanon.

“Until all conditions are met, the Strait will remain closed,” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote in a post on X.

Iran’s Fars News Agency also reported the statement.