Trump threatens to ‘blow hell’ on Iran’s Kharg Island in impromptu phone call with PBS News

US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to strike Iran’s Kharg Island again after last week’s attack that destroyed key military facilities, saying: “I told them straight out – I’ll beat the hell out of her.”

The comments came during a three-minute phone call Monday morning with PBS News correspondent Liz Landers, while the president was attending what he described as a “very important meeting” on the Iran war.

Trump announced Friday on Truth Social that he had “completely destroyed every military target” on the island, which includes a small oil terminal in the Persian Gulf that ships 90% of Iran’s oil exports.

US military officials reported on Saturday that a number of military and missile installations were destroyed in the attack, but the oil infrastructure remained preserved. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that Iran would respond if the country’s oil or energy infrastructure was attacked.

In a phone call on Monday, Trump described the island as “out of service except for the pipes I left behind.”

“I didn’t want to hit the pipes because, you know, it took years of work to put them together,” he added. “He is dead now, militarily, completely. They have fled every military area.”

Trump said he “didn’t even come close” to hitting the oil infrastructure, noting that he “left 100 yards around it.” “Because once you do it, it takes a long time. It’s a long construction process.”

Trump said he had “left a lot of infrastructure behind” in attacks on Tehran since the first attack by the United States and Israel in late February, because “this is years of construction.”

“I could destroy power plants in an hour. They’d be gone. But if I did, it would mean years of rebuilding and that’s a shock. So I try to postpone that kind of thing.”

He watches: More Marines are heading to the Middle East as the United States continues its ongoing strikes on Iran

A majority of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the war in Iran, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, and they also oppose American military action there.

The Trump administration has presented varied and evolving goals for the war in Iran, and ultimately said the president will determine when the mission succeeds. At the beginning of March, Trump predicted that the war would last “four to five weeks.”

When asked on Monday whether he saw US troops on the ground in Iran, he replied: “I don’t want to say that.” When asked if his thinking had changed on the issue, he said: “No, it hasn’t, but I don’t want to talk about it, because I’m not going to talk about strategy with a reporter. OK?”

Gas prices have risen since the start of the war. The International Energy Agency released 400 million barrels of oil from its reserves last week to stabilize the market.

Trump said by phone on Monday that “oil prices are going to drop like a rock” once the war is over.

When asked by PBS News when exactly that would be, Trump said: “Well, once the war is over and it won’t be over… I don’t think it’s going to be long.”

When pressed for more details on the timeline, Trump said: “I don’t want to say that. I never want to say that because if I’m two days late, you’re going to criticize me.”