Donald Trump delivered a stark warning to Iran on Monday, threatening to ‘knock the hell out of’ the nation during a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a meeting with the Israeli leader on December 29, Trump criticized Iran regarding its nuclear ambitions and issued a direct warning.
“I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re gonna have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” Trump stated from Mar-a-Lago.
“But hopefully that’s not happening. I heard Iran wants to make a deal. They want to make a deal — that’s much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through a big attack on them, and they decided not to make a deal. They wish they made that deal.”
He further suggested the possibility of deploying additional B-2 stealth bombers to target Iran, following reports indicating Tehran’s alleged pursuit of new sites for a nuclear arsenal.
“Usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Trump remarked.
“I’m hearing that they’re not nuclear yet — but maybe nuclear too. The sites were obliterated, but they’re looking at other sites. That’s what I’ve heard. They’re looking.”
“They have other places they can go,” he added. “And if they’re doing that, they’re making a big mistake. There’s no reason for them to do it.”
Trump concluded: “I hope they’re not doing it, because we don’t want to waste the fuel on a B-2, it’s a 37-hour trip, both ways. I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel.”
While the focus was on Iran, the meeting between the Israeli and US leaders also covered several other important issues, including the Israel-Gaza peace agreement and efforts to strengthen ties with the newly formed Syrian government.
The discussions particularly highlighted the ‘second-phase’ of the Israel-Gaza peace agreement, emphasizing Hamas disarmament and the reconstruction of devastated areas.
“We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament, and they’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we’ll see how that works out,” Trump said.
“If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do — they agreed to it — then there will be hell to pay for them, and we don’t want that,” Trump stated.
“Countries that were with them… agreed that they would disarm. And now if they say they’re going to disarm, that’s fine. If they say they’re not going to disarm, those same countries will go and wipe them out.”
Although much of Trump’s attention was on Gaza and Hamas, he briefly addressed the concerns of US officials who questioned Israel’s commitment to the current ceasefire.
“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing. I’m concerned about what other people are doing, or maybe aren’t doing.”
“Sometimes they [Israel] don’t understand when somebody violates something that you want to give them a second chance — we hope we’ll give them a couple of second chances — but no, Israel has lived up to the plan 100%.”
Amidst political discussions, an unexpected announcement was made concerning an award, as Netanyahu disclosed that Trump would be honored with the ‘Israel Prize’ shortly.
“We decided to break a convention… to award the Israel Prize, which, in almost our 80 years, we’ve never awarded it to a non-Israeli, and we’re going to award it this year to President Trump,” Netanyahu informed reporters afterward.
The prize, typically recognizing cultural achievements in literature, the arts, Jewish studies, and other fields, marks a historic first for a foreign leader to receive such recognition.