What was billed as a military briefing on the rescue of two downed F-15 crew members from Iranian territory became, on Monday afternoon, one of the most wide-ranging and combative press conferences of President Trump’s second term.
Trump, flanked by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine, announced the successful two-phase extraction of an Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle crew from deep inside Iran over the Easter weekend, and then spent the better part of an hour threatening journalists, dismissing NATO, boasting about seizing Venezuelan oil, floating the idea of charging tolls on the Strait of Hormuz and warning Iran it faces total infrastructure destruction by Tuesday night.
The rescue
The F-15E, call sign Dude 44, went down late Thursday night over Iranian territory during Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran that commenced Feb. 28 under direct orders from the president, with U.S. and partner forces striking targets to dismantle the Iranian regime’s security apparatus. According to the U.S. Government, both crew members ejected safely but landed miles apart.
The pilot, Dude 44 Alpha, was extracted Friday afternoon in a daylight operation involving A-10 Warthogs, HH-60 Jolly Green 2 helicopters and Air Force Special Warfare personnel. One Sandy A-10 was struck by enemy fire; its pilot ejected over friendly territory and was recovered. The weapons system officer, Dude 44 Bravo, evaded capture for nearly 48 hours, scaling mountain terrain while injured and bleeding, before activating an emergency transponder. His first transmitted message: “God is good.”
A second rescue force involving 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters and 48 refueling tankers, extracted Dude 44 Bravo early Easter Sunday morning. Trump said he authorized the first rescue within two hours of learning the pilot’s location, despite opposition from within the military.
“Not everybody was on board,” Trump said. “There were military people that said, you just don’t go into the heart of a very powerful military.”
Hegseth framed the rescue in explicitly religious terms. “Shot down on a Friday, hidden in a cave all of Saturday, rescued on Sunday,” he said. “A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for.”
As of April 1, at least 13 U.S. service members had been killed during Operation Epic Fury and 303 wounded. Trump did not address those figures.
The ultimatum
Trump announced that Tuesday will bring the highest volume of U.S. airstrikes since the operation’s opening day, with Tuesday’s strikes set to be even larger. He gave Iran until 8 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday to reach a deal, one he said must include free passage through the Strait of Hormuz, or face the obliteration of its civilian infrastructure.
“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated,” Trump said. “Every power plant will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again. Complete demolition by 12:00. And it’ll happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to.”
When a New York Times correspondent raised whether targeting civilian power plants and bridges constituted violations of the Geneva Conventions and international law, Trump cut him off, questioned the paper’s circulation and called him “fake” before declining to answer the legal question. “The New York Times has no credibility,” Trump said.
He did, however, briefly float an alternative to destroying the strait, charging shipping tolls. “Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won,” Trump said, describing the U.S. as militarily victorious and Iran as “decapitated.”
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to adversaries. Mojtaba Khamenei has been elected as the new Supreme Leader in Tehran following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening weeks of the campaign. Just before strikes began on Feb. 27, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi said a breakthrough had been reached and Iran had agreed to never stockpile enriched uranium and to full IAEA verification, describing peace as “within reach.” After the attacks, he said active and serious negotiations had been undermined.
The press threats
Trump also directed explicit threats at the American press during the briefing. He said a media outlet had published information during the first rescue revealing that one crew member had been recovered but a second remained missing, information he said triggered a nationwide Iranian manhunt and directly endangered Dude 44 Bravo and the hundreds of service members sent to retrieve him.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say national security, give it up or go to jail,” Trump said. “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say. That doesn’t last long.”
He described the leaker as “a sick person” and said Iran had offered a large public reward for the capture of the missing airman as a direct result of the disclosure.
Venezuela and ‘the spoils’
In one of the more startling digressions of the afternoon, Trump spoke at length about Venezuela, invoking the U.S. military operation that removed former President Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year, and applying an explicit “to the victor go the spoils” doctrine to both that conflict and the current war with Iran.
Trump claimed the U.S. has already taken well over 100 million barrels of Venezuelan oil — a figure significantly higher than the 30 to 50 million barrels the administration announced in January, which it said would be sold at market value with proceeds controlled by the U.S. government.
He then suggested he is polling higher in Venezuela than any candidate in that country’s history and mused openly about running for president there once his current term ends. “I will quickly learn Spanish,” Trump said. “I’m good at language.”
NATO and allies
Trump expressed sharp frustration with NATO throughout the briefing, calling the alliance a “paper tiger” and saying it had declined to provide support and had withheld landing strips from U.S. forces. He called out Japan, South Korea and Australia by name for not participating. Spain closed its airspace to U.S. planes on March 30.
“NATO is us,” Trump said. “When we needed them, and we didn’t need them, obviously, because they haven’t helped at all — just the opposite.”
He praised Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for their cooperation and said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet with him Wednesday.
Trump said God supports the U.S. military action in Iran. “God is good and God wants to see people taken care of,” he said. “God doesn’t like what’s happening.”
The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit has arrived in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, with the 11th MEU en route. The Trump administration has submitted a $200 billion supplemental funding request to Congress.
This is a developing story.
