Pete Hegseth says the latest round of US strikes on Iran will be "strong and clear." "Central Command will be busy tonight," the defense secretary said Wednesday, adding the US will go after "key facilities" in Iran to secure "the kind of deal Trump expects," USA Today reports. US Central Command later announced on X that the US had commenced "launching additional self-defense strikes" at 5:15pm Eastern "against multiple targets in Iran at the Commander in Chief's direction," adding that the "strikes are in response to Iran's unwarranted and continued aggression." Iran launched attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain Tuesday after the US struck Iran in retaliation for the downing of an Apache helicopter.
"We hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them again hard today," Trump vowed earlier Wednesday. "And we'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers." Sources tell Axios that Trump held a meeting in the White House Situation Room Wednesday with officials including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with Hegseth joining from Central Command headquarters in Tampa. The sources say Trump is considering a large-scale but short military operation to pressure Iran into making a deal.
Hegseth, speaking at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, said the strikes would be "strong and clear," and if they "happen tomorrow night, they will be strong, and they will be clear," the Hill reports. He described Trump as the best deal-maker in the world and said Iran would be wise to take the deal the president wants to make. "Otherwise, they would have to deal with the types of plans that I just had a chance to see inside Central Command," Hegseth said. He added: "If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs, and we're very good at it."
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