President Donald Trump said on Thursday the U.S. military deployed an “armada” of ships heading toward Iran while promising to release more details on taking over Greenland in the next two weeks.
When asked where his administration currently stands with Iran, Trump replied that the United States is demonstrating its military might to deter the Iranian regime from executing protesters.
“We have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One after leaving the Davos summit in Switzerland. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”
“We have an armada — we have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see,” he added.
In recent weeks, the Iranian government has killed and arrested thousands of peaceful protesters. The situation has gotten so severe that Trump has threatened to send troops to rescue the Iranian people from their clerical regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump claimed he stopped 837 hangings of Iranian civilians, mostly young men, earlier Thursday.
“I said, ‘If you hang those people, you’re going to be hit harder than you’ve ever been hit. It’ll make what we did to your Iran nuclear [plants] look like peanuts,’” he said, referencing the U.S. bombing campaign that set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities last summer.
Iran canceled the planned executions instead of postponing them, according to Trump. He then went back to talking about the U.S. deployment of ships to the Islamic Republic.
“We have an armada,” the president added. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”
On Greenland, Trump appeared optimistic about the prospect of acquiring the Danish territory and offered a time frame for when his administration’s plans on that front will start coming together.
“We’ll have something in two weeks,” he responded. “There’s a good spirit to get something done, and we have to have a strong freedom. We have to have the ability to do exactly what we want to do. We have a great military.”
Trump’s rhetoric about Greenland had been escalating in the lead-up to his appearance at the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos this week. While there, the president met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss the framework of a possible deal involving Greenland.
No specific details about such an agreement were provided. In light of the development, Trump has said he won’t use military force to take over Greenland despite past statements suggesting as much.
The future of the Danish territory has come to the forefront of national politics, particularly after the U.S. bombed Venezuela and captured Nicolas Maduro. Nearly three weeks after the unprecedented international operation, Trump bragged about the U.S. military.
“We have the best weapons in the world by far. We showed that last week with Venezuela,” he said of the Jan. 3 mission. “We have the best weapons in the world. We have to make them faster.”
WITH ATTENTION ON TRUMP AND GREENLAND AT DAVOS, IRAN FALLS UNDER THE RADAR
The president also addressed a large bruise on his hand that had been photographed during his Davos visit, saying he had “clipped it on the table.”
“I put a little — what do they call it? — cream on it, but I clipped it,” Trump said. “I would say take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising. … I take the big aspirin. When you take the big aspirin, they tell you that you bruise. The doctors said, ‘You don’t have to take that, sir. You are very healthy.’ I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances.’ That’s one of the side effects.”
Discount Applied Successfully!
Your savings have been added to the cart.