President Trump on Thursday said he is sending a “massive armada” toward Iran amid the ongoing political uprising and the Iranian regime’s murder of its citizens.
Iranian state TV said on Wednesday that 3,117 people have been killed since December 27. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also issued a threat to the United States that the Islamic Republic will be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”
“Unlike the restraint Iran showed in June 2025, our powerful armed forces have no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack,” Araghchi wrote, referring to the 12-day war launched by Israel on Iran in June. “This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly, because as a diplomat and a veteran, I abhor war,” Araghchi said. “An all-out confrontation will certainly be ferocious and drag on far, far longer than the fantasy timelines that Israel and its proxies are trying to peddle to the White House. It will certainly engulf the wider region and have an impact on ordinary people around the globe.”
While speaking to reporters on Air Force One from Davos, Switzerland, Trump gave an update on Iran, telling reporters, “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.”
“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. Every one of them would have been hung,” Trump continued, noting that the Iranian culture is “ancient” with tactics “like from 1000 years ago.”
“But we have an armada,” the President said. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”
Trump further said he wants to meet with Iranian officials, but doubled down on threats to strike them if they do not make a deal or if they try to rebuild the nuclear facilities hit by US forces last July.
The President also said he still plans to impose 25% tariffs on countries that do business with Iran, starting “very soon.”
WATCH:
Reporter: Where the things stand with Iran?
Trump: We’re watching Iran. You know, 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. 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. Every one of them would have been hung. This is like from 1000 years ago. This is an ancient culture. Very smart people, by the way, but it’s an ancient culture. 837 mostly young men were going to be hung on Thursday.
And 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 your Iran nuclear look like peanuts. At 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— we have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.
Reporter: Would you like the supreme leader to step down or to call an exile—
Trump: I don’t want to say right now. I don’t want to get into that, but they know what we’re looking for. There’s a lot of killing going on.
Reporter: You said today they want to talk, and we’ll talk. So, have you set something up? Have they asked you—
Trump: Yeah I do. I would. You know, we’ve talked to them a lot. They should have made a deal before we hit them with the nuclear because we really meant— that was a devastating hit. That whole area is out of play. And if they try and do it again, they’re gonna have to go to another area. We’ll hit them there too, just as easily, much more easily, because that was very advanced. They were building that for 10 years, and they’d have to start anew. That was a total obliteration.
Reporter: Are you still planning to go ahead on the secondary tariffs for those affected by business with Iran, the 25% tariffs?
Trump: I am doing that. Yeah, we’re doing that. If you do business with Iran, you can have a tariff with 25%.
Per the New York Post:
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.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump last week told reporters that he would not strike Iran after they canceled the hanging of over 800 protesters. “As you know, Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” he said, adding, “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled them.”
MORE:
WATCH: President Trump Confirms he Canceled Strikes on Iran – “Iran Canceled the Hanging of Over 800 People”
The post WATCH: Trump Says He’s Sending “Massive Armada” Toward Iran After Iran Threatens “All-Out Confrontation” If US Attacks – “Maybe we Won’t Have to Use it. We’ll See” appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.