US President Trump said there were no limits to his power and that he believed the Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran constituted Iran’s unconditional surrender in an interview with Axios on Thursday.
“It really probably is unconditional surrender. I think so,” Trump said when asked about the MoU.
Trump emphasized the damage the US had done to Iran’s military forces and senior officials, including Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claiming that he had achieved regime change through killing the previous government officials.
“And I sadly hurt the other ayatollah,” Trump added, speaking of Iran’s current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who Trump said “is different from the father.”
“He’s got a certain braveness because he was, he’s badly injured,” Trump said.
‘If it weren’t for Donald Trump, Israel would have been eviscerated’
Trump continued to describe Iran’s leadership as “primitive geniuses” and the American operations against Tehran as “an excursion to stop a very vile little group of people.”
“I had to stop them because if they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it,” Trump asserted, reiterating a claim that if he did not act, Iran would have used a nuclear weapon against Israel.
“If it weren’t for Donald Trump, Israel would have been eviscerated,” Trump asserted.
He also claimed that Iran would have used nuclear weapons against Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
When asked about his relationship with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said it is “good.”
“They have a lot of respect for me, and they do as I say,” he explained, claiming that he will be able to prevent Israel from continuing actions against Iranian-backed terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump claims there are ‘no limits’ to his power
When asked if the war with Iran taught him anything about the limits of his power, Trump told Axios that “there are no limits.”
“I think that there are no limits. We have the most powerful military in the world, by far,” he stated.
Trump also disputed allegations that he “wasn’t tough enough” on the Iranian regime, asserting that the US’s Operation Epic Fury wiped out Iran’s military, air force, air defenses, and navy.
“The only way I can get tougher is if I go in there for another two or three weeks and continue to bomb the hell out of them,” he said, adding that there would be no benefit to making such a move.
The Strait of Hormuz, Trump explained, is where the consequences of continuing to strike Iran would immediately show. “
“The Hormuz Strait would be totally closed. You would have mines all over it,” he elaborated. “We wouldn’t have oil for months.”
“I have one primary wish as president in terms of people,” Trump told Axios. “ I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover. This is the kind of thing that could cause a worldwide depression.”
Now that the US-Iran MoU has been finalized and the Strait of Hormuz has reopened for commercial shipping, Trump said that the price of oil is “tumbling. The ships are roaring out of there… The stock market is way up, way, way up.”
“Everybody is richer,” he claimed, touting the success of the deal.
