President Trump said Thursday that the US has an “armada” headed toward Iran — but that “maybe we won’t have to use it” — as he remained coy about his intentions after authorities slaughtered protesters this month.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
On Tuesday, the USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in the South China Sea in recent days, was spotted making its way to the region, according to ship-tracking data.
The aircraft carrier and three accompanying destroyers were all confirmed to be heading west, a US Navy official told the Associated Press.
The USS George H.W. Bush is also at sea in the Atlantic Ocean – bound for Europe – after departing from Virginia’s Naval Station Norfolk last week.
The aircraft carrier is conducting “live-fire exercises” and other training activities, per a post on the ship’s official Facebook page.
Trump said on Jan 2. that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters… the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go” — but last week he defied expectations of a massive military strike after Mideast allies urged restraint.
Trump said aboard the presidential jet that his 25% tariff on countries doing business with Iran, such as China and the UAE, would take effect “very soon.”
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
“We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely. I stopped 837 hangings on Thursday. They would have been dead. Everyone would have been hung. This is like from 1,000 years ago,” Trump said.
“I said, ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit. It’ll make what we did to you around nuclear look like peanuts.’ And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it, and they actually said they canceled it. They didn’t postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign. But we have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”
This past weekend, Trump publicly called for new leadership in Iran, accusing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of “the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before.”
On Thursday, however, the president acknowledged that he was open to negotiations with the regime.
“Iran does want to talk, and we’ll talk,” Trump said at a ceremony at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, establishing an international Board of Peace to oversee the cease-fire in Gaza.
