Trump declares US 'doing very well' in Iran, claims military destroyed

2026-03-07 - 07:02

President Donald Trump delivered an upbeat assessment Friday of the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, telling reporters at the White House that operations are proceeding "very well" and that Tehran's military capabilities have been largely dismantled. When asked to rate the campaign's progress on a scale of zero to ten, Trump responded: "I said I'd give it a 12 to a 15." Claims of Destruction Trump made sweeping claims about damage inflicted on Iranian military assets, asserting that "their navy is gone. Their communications are gone. Their leaders are gone. Two sets of their leaders are gone. They're down to their third set." He further claimed Iran's air force had been "wiped out entirely" and that all 32 Iranian naval vessels had been sunk. "Think of it. They had 32 ships. All 32 are at the bottom of the ocean," he added. Conflict Context The president's optimistic assessment comes as the joint US-Israeli offensive launched February 28 has now killed more than 1,000 people, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over 150 schoolgirls, and senior military officials. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks targeting US-linked sites across the region, including a strike in Kuwait that killed six American service members at a tactical operations center. Despite Trump's claims of Iranian military collapse, Tehran continues to launch retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf states hosting US assets.