US President Donald Trump speaks to the media next to White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt at the White House on March 11, 2026 in Washington, DC, US.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is not worried about Iran carrying out terrorist attacks inside the US in retaliation for the ongoing war between the US and Israel.
“No, I don’t,” Trump said when asked by reporters outside the White House if he feared such a domestic attack.
Trump touted progress in the war against Iran on the 11th day before leaving for a trip to Kentucky and Ohio.
“Right now, they’ve lost their navy, their air force. They don’t have any anti-aircraft equipment,” the president said. “Their leaders are gone, and we could do a lot worse.”
Trump said the U.S. military is “leaving some things” in Iran that could be destroyed by midday if necessary, and that “they literally won’t be able to build that country back up.”
He said the US military had destroyed about 16 mine layers in Iran.
Asked whether Iran had mined the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most sensitive chokepoint for oil shipments, Trump said, “We don’t think so.”
In a Tuesday report citing two people familiar with US intelligence reporting, CNN said Iran had begun laying mines in the strait, though only a few dozen in recent days.
“I think they should send tankers through the narrow strait,” Trump said, referring to the CEOs of major oil companies, which are effectively closed because of the war.
A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned on Monday that tankers passing through the strait should be “extremely careful”.
Located on the southern coast of Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
Insurance giant Chubb said on Wednesday it will act as the lead underwriter for a US-government-led program to provide insurance for ships passing through the strait.
Trump on Wednesday dismissed a question about a New York Times report saying, “Newly released video adds to evidence that an American missile may have hit an Iranian elementary school, where 175 people, most of them children, were reportedly killed.”
“I don’t know about that,” Trump said, supporting other analyzes that the U.S. military was responsible for the Feb. 28 attack on the Shazara Tayyebeh elementary school.
The president again criticized Spain’s leadership for not helping the US war effort.
“We can cut off trade with Spain,” said Trump, who has a penchant for using tariffs and other retaliatory trade practices as leverage against other countries.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has drawn Trump’s ire for blocking the US military from using two bases in Andalusia to launch attacks on Iran.
(tags to translate) Breaking News: Politics
