Trump says US will hit Iran economically as Iran has ‘not a lot’ of missiles, drones left

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Satellite images show a major oil slick off Iran’s Qeshm Island, with oil also detected near Sirri Island, raising concerns over the environmental impacts, Reuters reported on Friday.

President Donald Trump was joking when he said the United States would declare the Strait of Hormuz US territory after the war with Iran, a senior White House official said on Friday, adding that Trump had not discussed such a move with his advisers, according to Wall Street Journal reporter Brian Schwartz.

“Per a senior White House official- President Trump has not met with his advisers about declaring the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory post the war and was joking during his speech today in New York. My observation while I watched the speech in person- he did chuckle after he said it but then he seemed to say “it’s true,” Schwartz posted on X.

Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson on Friday disputed reports about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying a small number of sailors received mental health treatment with no loss of life and that no meals were missed during the carrier’s extended deployment.

“The Fake News media wants you to ignore the facts about the USS Lincoln: * A small number of mental health cases were treated with NO loss of life. * Meal plans were adjusted when fresh resupply was unavailable, without a SINGLE meal being missed,” Wilson posted on X.

“Calls home were limited when the operational threat was too high. Our Sailors on the USS Lincoln are victors, not victims! Cheap shots by the media to misrepresent their historic mission are disgraceful,” she added.

A 16-year-old Iranian girl who reportedly lost an eye during recent protests contacted Ghazal Ranjkesh, who lost an eye during the 2022 protests, asking her to teach her how to apply makeup because she can no longer see, human rights activist Motahare Goonei said in a post on X on Friday.

“Ghazal Ranjkesh, a woman who lost an eye after being shot with pellets by Iranian security forces in 1401, says in a new post that a 16-year-old girl who lost her eye in Dey 1404 messaged her and asked her to teach her how to apply makeup because she can no longer see... There is no doubt that this is one of the most horrific eras that humanity will ever write about in its history,” she said.

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The USS Abraham Lincoln will return home soon as part of a planned rotation after 266 days deployed, including 200 days in a combat zone, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said on Friday, pushing back against reports portraying the carrier’s crew as victims of its extended mission.

Cao said the carrier completed more than 10,000 sorties and dropped 1.5 million pounds of ordnance during the deployment, while a small number of mental health cases had been treated with no loss of life.

“The Lincoln was extended because the mission demanded it,” Cao said in a statement posted on X, adding that the crew had been pushed to its limits but had “never broken.”

US Navy has said it has not observed an increase in suicidal ideation among the crew, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described reports about conditions aboard the ship as “completely misrepresented.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that no decision had been made to resume negotiations with the United States, semi-official ISNA reported.

He said Qatar and Pakistan were continuing to exchange messages and remain in contact with Tehran, but added that this “does not mean negotiations.”

Araghchi said the Islamabad memorandum of understanding referred to an “end to the war,” not a ceasefire, and that there was therefore no 60-day truce requiring an extension.

He also said previous diplomatic channels were no longer effective and that Iran was working on a temporary path that could later develop into a final framework.

Iran will decide when the Strait of Hormuz is opened or closed and will continue what it described as a blockade until the United States accepts its “strategic defeat,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Friday, after US President Donald Trump said he would declare the strategic waterway US territory following Iran’s defeat.

“Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian; this strait will only be closed and opened under Iran's command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” he posed on X.

“They still have missiles, but not a lot. They still have drones, but just a fraction of what they had,” US President Donald Trump said in a speech at the Police Academy Center for Training and Intelligence on Friday.

He added that Iran’s “manufacturing of missiles is 82 percent” and that its manufacturing capacity was “largely gone.”

Trump said “159 ships are right now at the bottom of the sea” and that Iran had 212 aircraft, adding that “every one of their airplanes is shot down.”

He also said Iran had “350 percent inflation” and that its currency was “of no value.”

Trump criticized the New York Times over its Iran war coverage, saying it had reported that “Iran is doing quite well in the war,” and added that the United States was “winning big with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

President Donald Trump said Friday that he might soon declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States,” while reiterating that Iran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States,” Trump said.

He also said Iran would have obtained a nuclear weapon without US B-2 bomber strikes during the 12-day war in June 2025.

“If we didn’t hit them, you would have had a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, adding: “They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon.”