President Donald Trump intensified pressure on Iran today by sharing a dramatic video on Truth Social depicting him authorizing an attack on an Iranian aircraft, fueling fresh speculation about a possible renewal of hostilities between Washington and Tehran.

“Okay, we have it in our sight. Fire – boom!” Trump says, as a US-flagged destroyer blows one with the Iranian flag out of the sky.

The video came as Trump sharpened his rhetoric against Iran, rejecting the regime’s latest peace proposal and openly discussing the extensive damage already inflicted by the United States during the conflict, while warning that additional infrastructure could still be targeted.

“We hit them unbelievably hard. Look — we left their bridges. We left their electricity capacity. We can knock that all out in two days. Two days — everything,” Trump told Bret Baier, host of Fox News Special Report in an interview that aired Friday night.

Analysts who follow Iran closely told The New York Post that another round of fighting appears increasingly plausible as tensions continue to rise.

“I’m sure preparations are underway for more escalation,” said Jon Hoffman, a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute.

“Trump has refused to back down from his maximalist demands in negotiations,” he said, while predicting that “Iran won’t negotiate away its leverage.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told members of Congress this week that the Pentagon already has contingency plans prepared should the situation deteriorate further.

“We have a plan to retrograde if necessary. We have a plan to shift assets,”

A Friday report in The New York Times stated that military officials are engaged in “intense preparations” for the possibility that strikes against Iran could resume soon. According to Middle Eastern officials cited in the report, the plans could involve “aggressive bombing runs” beginning as early as next week.

“We have nothing to provide, we don’t speculate on hypothetical situations,” a Department of War official told The Post. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The footage Trump shared online reportedly originated from a Women’s History Month event held in 2020 and was later repurposed for the Iran-related post.

The United States currently maintains roughly 50,000 troops in the region, alongside major naval and air assets positioned nearby in the event Trump authorizes additional military action. The USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George W. Bush carrier strike groups remain deployed in the area following the return of the USS Gerald R. Ford on Saturday.

Trump has continued to speak publicly about eliminating what he has referred to as Iran’s remaining “nuclear dust,” describing enriched uranium buried deep beneath Iranian nuclear facilities that have already been struck multiple times by American forces.

He also revisited the joint American-Israeli offensive that severely damaged Iran’s Kharg Island, a critical hub for the country’s oil exports that was also the site of a recent oil spill.

“We hit Kharg Island, everything but the oil. They wiped out the whole island. Except they left the nozzle, you know that’s where the oil comes out – just in case,” he said.

The War Department deployed 5,000 Marines to the region in March, a move that increased speculation about the possibility of a future ground mission aimed at securing strategic locations.

Trump has shown growing impatience with the ongoing diplomatic negotiations, which have reportedly been conducted in Islamabad and centered around a proposed 14-point framework.

“I am not going to be much more patient. They should make a deal,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview Thursday from Beijing. “Now they can make a deal, or they get annihilated,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Trump also dismissed Tehran’s latest proposal outright, criticizing what he described as unacceptable language regarding nuclear restrictions.

He outright dissed Iran’s latest offer in comments to reporters, ripping its “unacceptable sentence, because they have fully agreed no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don’t read the rest.”

Trump said he did not ask Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meetings this week to pressure Beijing into reopening the Strait of Hormuz, despite China’s heavy reliance on oil shipments passing through the waterway.

“When you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials appeared to threaten tighter control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s parliamentary security chief, Ebrahim Azizi, wrote on X that Tehran had finalized plans to regulate passage through the strait by allowing access to allied nations while permanently barring vessels connected to the United States.

Operation Epic Fury continued for 40 days before a temporary ceasefire was announced on April 8. Trump has said the pause in fighting came after requests from Pakistan, which has served as an intermediary during negotiations.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that American forces destroyed Iran’s naval power and crippled much of its missile-launching capability. During his flight home from China, he lashed out at a reporter over reports suggesting Iran still retains a significant portion of its arsenal.

“You should be ashamed of yourself. I actually think it’s treason,” he said.

US Central Command also pushed back Thursday against reports claiming Iran still possesses 70% of its missiles and 75% of its rocket launchers. Adm. Brad Cooper, head of Central Command, dismissed those reports outright, calling them “not accurate.”

{Matzav.com}