President Donald Trump signaled Monday that renewed U.S. military action against Iran would remain limited but warned Washington could still “smack” the Islamic Republic again, as he weighs a plan for additional strikes around the Strait of Hormuz following Tehran’s attack on American forces in Jordan.
The remarks capped a day in which Trump vowed a U.S. response to the Iranian attack, declared Iran a “failed nation” and portrayed its military and leadership as devastated after months of war — even as American commanders are reportedly seeking authority to prevent Tehran from rebuilding some of the capabilities destroyed in the fighting.
Asked in the Oval Office whether the resumption of U.S. strikes represented a limited campaign or a return to full-scale war, Trump replied, “It’s very limited.”
Trump pointed to Iran’s economic turmoil and battered military, saying its leaders are “largely dead,” its navy and air force are gone, and its “surveillance equipment is almost entirely gone.”
“That doesn’t mean we won’t smack them,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump’s reference to Iran’s diminished surveillance capabilities comes as U.S. military officials are increasingly concerned that Tehran is rebuilding systems used to threaten American forces and commercial shipping around Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command developed a plan over the past week for limited, periodic strikes aimed at degrading reconstituted Iranian radar, air-defense and anti-ship missile capabilities, Axios reported Monday, citing three U.S. officials.
The proposal, backed by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and forwarded to the White House several days ago, is intended to reduce the threat to oil tankers, U.S. Navy vessels and Air Force aircraft operating around the strait.
One U.S. official described the idea as having to “mow the lawn” to keep those capabilities in check.
The concern is not merely theoretical. In a previously undisclosed incident detailed in the report, Iranian forces fired an anti-aircraft missile toward a U.S. F-35 providing air cover to vessels transiting the strait. The missile did not come close enough to threaten the aircraft, but U.S. officials viewed the launch as evidence that Tehran was beginning to restore capabilities degraded in earlier strikes.
Iranian military officials have simultaneously claimed progress in rebuilding some of those capabilities.
Brig. Gen. Alireza Elhami, who commands Iran’s Joint Headquarters of Air Defense, said Monday that Tehran had unveiled several new domestically produced interception systems developed from lessons learned during the earlier U.S.-Israeli campaign, according to Iranian state media.
Senior IRGC adviser Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi separately claimed that weapons-production facilities damaged in earlier attacks had been rebuilt in more secure locations and were now operating with more advanced technology and at higher production rates. Naqdi also claimed Iran retains more than 90 percent of its missile stockpile.
The Iranian claims have not been independently verified but come as Washington considers whether additional strikes will be needed to prevent Tehran from restoring capabilities around the strategic waterway.
The proposal had not been approved before Sunday’s renewed exchange of fire, with the White House previously leaning against further strikes over concerns they could trigger another escalation. The latest Iranian attacks, however, could lead Trump to greenlight the plan, according to the report.
“The President retains all options at his disposal,” the White House said. “The Iranians want to make a deal, but they are always a day late and a dollar short.”
The deliberations took on new urgency Sunday after U.S. forces struck two IRGC launchers on Larak Island that CENTCOM said were being prepared to fire rockets carrying sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz.
The military described the operation as a “limited, precise” strike against an imminent threat to commercial shipping, coming just days after U.S. forces completed clearing Iranian mines from international shipping lanes through the strait.
Iran responded hours later by firing ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan. Jordanian air defenses said they intercepted eight missiles without reported casualties or damage.
By Monday morning, Trump was publicly promising retaliation.
“There will be a response,” Trump told Fox News, adding: “We’re going to hit them hard.”
Trump also declared on Truth Social that “Iran is officially a Failed Nation. IT IS DEAD!” pointing to what he described as the destruction of its navy and air force, economic collapse and a leadership “in total disarray.”
Hours later in the Oval Office, Trump pointed to the reopening of Hormuz as evidence of the progress U.S. forces have made in restoring the flow of shipping and oil through the strategic waterway.
“We have the Strait of Hormuz in extremely good shape,” Trump said.
“Many, many ships got through last night, as you know, with the Navy’s assistance, and we’ve been averaging 30 ships a night,” he continued.
Trump said the resulting flow of oil was helping prevent the price spike that had been widely feared from the conflict.
His remarks followed what CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper last week called a major milestone in the months-long operation to secure the strait. Cooper announced that Iranian mines had been cleared from internationally recognized shipping lanes and said U.S. forces had helped nearly 1,500 commercial vessels carrying almost 750 million barrels of crude oil transit the waterway under American protection.
Iran, meanwhile, warned Monday that further U.S. attacks would draw a substantially heavier response.
In a joint statement, the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces and Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters — the country’s highest military staff body and top joint operational command — accused the U.S. military of using the territory, airspace and facilities of regional countries to attack Iranian targets.
“While respecting the national sovereignty of our neighbors, we will never tolerate any form of aggression and will respond with a far more forceful response,” the statement said.
The Iranian command further warned that those facilitating U.S. attacks should expect its forces to respond “by striking the source of any aggression,” concluding: “Do not test it again.”
Trump later pushed back on reports that prolonged, large-scale operations against Iran risk straining the U.S. military’s ability to confront threats elsewhere, calling the conflict “a relatively little war for us.”
“This is not a big war,” Trump said.
The president said the United States has large stores of ammunition and munitions positioned around the world that could be drawn upon if necessary, while maintaining that even supplies of the military’s most advanced weapons remain in “very good shape.”
“But I don’t think we’re going to need it,” Trump said, “because nobody’s going to mess with us.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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