A question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins stopped Donald Trump mid-stride as he defended renewed US strikes on Iran.
Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump on the human and political meaning of renewed Iran strikes
Collins asked the president whether months of bombing now represented a permanent state of affairs. “You noted the United States is bombing Iran again; you’ve been bombing Iran for months now. Is this just the new normal for the American people?” she asked in the Oval Office.
Donald Trump deflected by measuring the Iran campaign against past wars. “We were in Vietnam for 19 years, we’re here for four months,” he said, before rattling off damage to Iran’s navy, air force, and missile stockpiles.
The strikes restarted on Saturday after a fragile ceasefire didn’t hold. Iran attacked a container ship, which responded with 140 strikes that day and additional operations on Sunday. A third night of bombing began on Monday. Both nations insist they control the Strait of Hormuz.
Rather than addressing the human toll, Trump pivoted to his deal-making skills and criticised predecessors. Even then turned on Kaitlan Collins’ employer. “You read fake news like your network, CNN,” he said, accusing outlets of reporting that Iran was performing well.
He claimed Iranian inflation had jumped from 5 percent to over 300 percent in months, adding that media preferring a US loss was “treasonous in a certain way.” Collins did not respond to the remark and continued with the interview.
On the same lines, Donald Trump also introduced a transactional demand. He wants Gulf states and other nations to reimburse Washington for patrolling the strait. “I wanna be reimbursed, because we’re protecting a very rich portion of the world,” he told Collins, naming Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE.
A Truth Social post declared the US “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT” and proposed a 20 percent fee on cargo shipments. The demand adds a commercial element to a mission Collins framed as an indefinite human commitment.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
This story originally appeared on Realitytea
