Trump says US will ‘hit Iran hard’ as hostilities resume – as it happened

Hostilities Reignite Between Washington and Tehran as Trump Vows a Hard Response

Wanderstayfinder.com – The overnight exchange of fire between the United States and Iran has pushed the Middle East back into open military confrontation. Jordan’s armed forces confirmed that they intercepted eight ballistic missiles launched toward US military installations on Jordanian soil in the early hours of Monday. Within hours, President Donald Trump made clear that Washington would answer in kind.

“We’re going to hit them hard,” Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst. “There will be a response.”

The president’s remarks came amid a broader pattern of escalating rhetoric and kinetic action that has left regional allies scrambling to assess where the next salvo will land. Jordan, which hosts a significant US troop presence, found itself once again in the crossfire of a dispute between two powers that do not share a border.

The Kharg Island Signal

Sunday brought an unusual twist: a one-line social media post from Trump referencing Kharg Island, Iran’s principal oil-export terminal on the Persian Gulf. The post was paired with an AI-generated video clip depicting fabricated US military strikes. A US official clarified on Monday that no overnight strikes had actually targeted the island.

Vice-president JD Vance framed the post not as an operational announcement but as deliberate messaging. Asked directly about the social media stunt, Vance explained:

“The president likes to switch it up on social media a little bit. He would be the first to say he doesn’t make announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he’s sending a message to the Iranians.”

An Iranian official, for his part, dismissed the post as “laughable,” underscoring how both sides are now fighting as much in the information space as on the battlefield.

Sanctions as Leverage

While missiles flew, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Asheville, North Carolina, opening the Group of 20 finance ministers’ meetings. Before taking the stage, he fielded questions about the newest tranche of sanctions imposed on Tehran. Speaking to CNBC, Bessent framed the economic pressure campaign in explicitly diplomatic terms:

“The goal of US sanctions on Iran is to create the conditions that they will want to come to the table.”

Bessent predicted that under the latest sanctions round, Iran’s economy could collapse within “weeks or months.” Yet he simultaneously signalled that a negotiated settlement, rather than outright economic capitulation, remained the administration’s preferred outcome. The tension between those two goals — maximum pressure versus a deal — defines the current Washington strategy.

The White House has branded the broader pressure campaign “Operation Economic Outcast,” describing it as “an unprecedented campaign to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining” the Islamic republic. The EU issued a statement Monday affirming its intention to work alongside the United States and other allied nations to sustain that economic pressure.

“The EU welcomes efforts at ensuring that Iran ceases its destabilising activities and engages in peace negotiations with good faith, also through additional economic pressure, including through the US-led Operation Economic Outcast.”

“IT IS DEAD!”

Trump’s rhetoric on Truth Social went further than mere deterrence. In a brief post, he labelled Iran a “failed nation” lacking a navy, an air force, or a stable currency, then declared in capital letters: “IT IS DEAD!” He credited Tehran’s only remaining advantages with a sympathetic US media, a “willingness to kill their protesters,” and a “good line of bullshit.” The Iranian leadership, he wrote, is in “total disarray” and “incapable” of representing its own people.

Such language, deployed alongside actual missile interceptions, blurs the line between diplomatic signalling and open war-mongering — a distinction that matters enormously for the Gulf states caught between the two.

Gulf Waters Under Threat

The United Arab Emirates condemned what it described as a “dangerous escalation” after an Iranian drone was intercepted over its territorial waters by air-defence systems. The UAE foreign ministry issued a statement on X “strongly condemn[ing] the hostile Iranian attack on the country involving a drone that was intercepted by air defence systems over UAE territorial waters.”

Separately, US Central Command pushed back against claims broadcast on Iranian state television and by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that a supertanker had struck two mines while transiting the Strait of Hormuz and been brought to a complete stop.

“Iran’s claim that a supertanker passing through strait of Hormuz struck two mines and was brought to a complete stop is false,” Centcom stated.

The strait carries roughly a fifth of global oil trade. Even unverified mine claims can spike shipping insurance premiums and rattle energy markets, making the credibility contest over Hormuz a matter of global economic consequence.

Gaza and the Wider Front

Medics reported two deaths and several injuries when an Israeli airstrike struck a crowd gathered near the municipal public park in Gaza City on Monday. The area is densely packed with families displaced by Israel’s ongoing assault. Gaza’s health ministry tallied at least 1,320 fatalities from Israeli strikes since a ceasefire agreement was signed between Israel and Hamas last October.

Arms Deals and Southern Lebanon

In a parallel development, Israel finalised a multibillion-dollar weapons export agreement with Greece on Monday — the largest bilateral defence deal between the two nations. The $3.5 billion package (€3 billion / £2.6 billion), branded “Achilles Shield,” centres on a multilayered air-defence system built around Israeli technology.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli artillery shelling struck the southern Lebanese town of Houla on Monday, with additional overnight strikes hitting the areas of Mansouri and Buyout Al-Sayyad. The shelling underscores how the Iran–US confrontation continues to ripple outward, pulling neighbouring theatres back into active exchange.

For regional capitals from Amman to Abu Dhabi, the central question is no longer whether the next round of strikes will come, but how quickly the diplomatic off-ramp — the one Bessent says Washington still wants — will appear, if at all.