The president signaled that the United States is ‘not finished yet’ with Iran and that there would ‘be more of the same.’
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on March 11, 2026. President Trump is traveling to Ohio and Kentucky today to highlight two local businesses. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
President Donald Trump said on March 11 that Iran’s military has been severely degraded by U.S.–Israeli strikes during the conflict that started in late February.
On Wednesday, Iran attacked commercial ships across the Persian Gulf and also Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mounted.
The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, agreed to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history to counter the war’s effects on energy markets.
“Our military is the best. It’s the most powerful in the world, and they’re hitting them very hard,” Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House on Air Force One, adding that “we’re not finished yet.”
When asked by a reporter if the U.S. military needed to take more action, Trump said that there would be “more of the same” and “we’ll see how that all comes out.”
“Right now, they’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost their air force. They have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all,” Trump said. “They have no radar. Their leaders are gone, and we could do a lot worse.”
Trump said that the military is sparing some members of the Iranian leadership and infrastructure, or “they literally would never be able to build that country back again.” He added that the U.S. “could take them out by this afternoon, in fact, within an hour.”
The military has “hit them harder than virtually any country in history has been hit, and we’re not finished yet,” the president continued.
Iranian forces are targeting ships in the Strait of Hormuz with missiles, drones, and mines. The U.S. military has attempted to limit Iran’s mine-laying capabilities to make the strait safer for oil tankers.
The waterway off Iran’s coast, vital for oil and gas, has effectively been closed. Early Wednesday, three commercial ships were hit by Iranian projectiles.
Trump told reporters that the United States “took out just about all of their mines” and that U.S. forces had also destroyed “just about all of their mine ships in one night.” He added that oil companies could go ahead and use the strait.
“I think they should,” the president told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Ohio and Kentucky.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it conducted strikes on two ships in the strait after they allegedly ignored warnings from the IRGC, according to comments carried in state-run PressTV.
One of the vessels was identified as the Express Room and was flying a Liberian flag, while Iran claimed it was owned by Israel. A container ship, the Mayuree Naree, was also targeted by the IRGC, it said.
“We will not allow even a single liter of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for the benefit of America and its friends,” a spokesman for the IRGC said through the state media outlet. PressTV also published photos on social media of the vessel that was allegedly struck while passing through the waterway.