WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that the US military is “locked and loaded” and ready to carry out his threatened “massive attack” on Iran, but he’s “not in a hurry” to do so as negotiations continue.
“We’re locked and loaded. We’re ready to go. But we’re talking to them. So maybe there will be, maybe there won’t be a tipping point,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Maybe they will cry ‘uncle,’ or maybe they’ll just give up, or maybe they’ll just go into a cave and hide. You know, they have caves very deep in the ground and they can hide.”
Trump said that he sensed Iranian officials were “getting more and more serious” about reaching a new deal with the US — after a preliminary peace plan signed by the president June 17 collapsed over continued Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason, but we are talking to them right now,” Trump said.
“We’re talking to them. So I think while we’re talking, we’ll see what comes of it,” he went on. “Despite what everyone says about the [midterm] election, I’m not in a hurry.”
