Trump contradicts Rubio by saying that the United States attacked Iran because he “had a feeling” that Tehran would attack Washington first.
Published March 3, 2026
US President Donald Trump has said his administration’s war against Iran “successfully destroyed” the country’s air force and navy.
“We’re doing very well,” Trump said Tuesday during a White House news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before their meeting.
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“They have no navy; that has been eliminated. They have no air force; that has been eliminated. They have no air detection, that has been eliminated,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came on the fourth day of US and Israeli strikes against Iran, as Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz and continued its retaliatory missile and drone strikes against US and allied targets across the Gulf region.
‘I had a feeling’
Trump said he had ordered the attack on Iran on Saturday because he “had a feeling” that Iran would strike first as negotiations over its nuclear program stalled.
Asked if Israel could have “forced” him to attack Iran, Trump responded: “No, actually, it could have forced them.”
On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that the US attacked Iran because it knew Israel was about to bomb that country and because the Trump administration believed Iran would then attack US facilities in the region.
Reporting from Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said Trump’s comments “are going to play out tremendously in the United States because the president of the United States does not have the power to declare war unless there is a threat to the United States.”
“The president of the United States has not offered any evidence of this,” he said.
Oil prices rise
Meanwhile, Merz, who is in Washington, DC to discuss a trade deal with the United States as well as Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, expressed support for the US-Israel war against Iran. But he said he hoped it would end soon as it was hurting the global economy.
“This, of course, is damaging our economies. This is true for oil prices, and also for gas prices. So, that is the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible,” Merz told reporters.
Trump said Germany had been “helping” by allowing US forces access to certain bases, drawing a stark contrast to the actions of two other European countries: the United Kingdom and Spain.
“They’re letting us land in certain areas and we appreciate that, and they’re just making it comfortable. We’re not asking them to put boots on the ground,” Trump said.
Merz said Germany and the United States shared a desire to get rid of Iran’s current regime and said he would discuss with Trump what happened once the military operation ended.
“We are on the same page in terms of removing this terrible regime from Iran, and we will talk about the day after,” Merz said.
The war in Iran is politically sensitive for Merz, who faces possible domestic backlash over Germany’s support for the US-Israeli operation.
On Sunday, he did not express any criticism of the US airstrikes, but stopped short of endorsing an operation that Trump’s critics said was carried out “without sufficient explanation and without the legal backing required under international law.”
