Hearings to examine the nominations of Melissa Griffin Dalton, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of the Air Force, Douglas Craig Schmidt, of Tennessee, to be Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, and Aprille Joy Ericsson, of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary, all of the Department of Defense. (Official U.S. Senate photo by Rebecca Hammel)
- President Trump is reportedly weighing a “massive attack” on the Islamic Republic, “bigger than ever before.”
Mississippi U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R) is among the lawmakers urging the President Donald Trump (R) to ramp up the operation in Iran, encouraging the President to finish the job.
“I’ve expressed publicly and privately my approval of finishing the job, and realizing that negotiations were getting us nowhere,” Wicker told The Hill on Thursday, saying he has spoken to the President multiple times this week on Iran.
Trump is reportedly weighing a “massive attack” on the Islamic Republic, “bigger than ever before,” as Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen strike commercial fishing vessels in the Red Sea. Oil prices has since surged over $100 per barrel once again, further putting pressure on the global economy as investors question when the conflict will end.
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart,” President Trump posted on Truth Social early Thursday morning.
Later in the day, Trump posted again, writing, “Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls. These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing to do.”
Senator Wicker, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said Iran shows no signs of operating “in good faith.”
“I’ve made it clear [to the President] that Iran, in my judgment, has no intention of negotiating in good faith or keeping a promise and that it’s pointless to pretend that they are trustworthy negotiating party,” Wicker told The Hill.
Wicker further said, “I believe we can keep the Strait open on our terms, and that’s the key to a successful conclusion of hostilities.”
The Trump administration has consistently said that the motivation for engaging in this conflict with Iran is to prevent the country from ever gaining access to a nuclear weapon. Those in Congress backing the President to take further action say that goal should be top of mind.
House Armed Services Committee member Congressman Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin) also told The Hill, “We got to remember the goal. This is to make sure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon ever. They’ve been able to open and close the straits willy-nilly for 50 years with conventional weapons. If they had a nuclear umbrella over that, it becomes a binary choice: nuclear war, which no one wants, or these radical Muslim mullahs having control over the Strait of Hormuz in perpetuity.”
