President Trump is dedicated to the Art of the Deal. But in the case of Iran, he’s been desperate to sit at the table even when the Islamic regime has clearly walked off.

With the retaliatory strikes by Israel over the weekend, it seemed clear that Iran was done with any kind of diplomacy. Their insistence that Hezbollah is really just an extension of themselves, and their assertion that Hezbollah controls Lebanon, so by extension anything that Israel does to Hezbollah (with the full cooperation of the actual government of Lebanon) is really an attack on Iran, is ridiculous on its face. And yet they have gotten away with this for years. Hezbollah is decimated after Operation Grim Beeper, but not finished yet. Hezbollah strikes Israel, Israel strikes back, Iran then strikes Israel for hitting Hezbollah, Israel hits Iran back, and President Trump is (metaphorically) sitting by himself at a table yelling “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!”

But then Iran took down an Army Apache helicopter early Tuesday morning (local time, Monday evening Eastern Time) over the Strait of Hormuz. The story of the drone attack and the rescue of the pilots is simply incredible. CENTCOM’s initial statement does not do it justice. The actual details are a tribute to both the skill of the pilots, and the amazing technology the United States has to deploy.

President Trump shared new details about the heroic actions of the US Army Apache helicopter pilots whose quick thinking helped them narrowly escape a fiery death at the hands of a deadly Iranian attack drone.

Speaking to Fox News Wednesday, the president said a drone laden with explosives had “lodged between” the pilots inside the helicopter as it was flying low over enemy territory — fully engulfed in flames, but failing to explode as intended.

“At any moment it could have exploded,” Trey Yingst told the network after speaking with Trump, who called the harrowing incident “a miracle.”

“And so we’re trying to take down the helicopter with the drone lodged into this gunship without it exploding. There was a lot of heat inside the cockpit of this helicopter, and ultimately these two pilots were able to take it down into the sea,” he said, quoting the president.

The pilots were then quickly rescued – by DRONE BOAT.

The 24-foot Saronic Corsair autonomous surface vessel, powered by artificial intelligence, located the crew who had been stuck for two hours in the waters off the coast of Oman, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The unmanned autonomous vessel, capable of carrying 1,000 pounds and reaching speeds of about 40 mph, quickly transported the pilots to a safe location in the waters, where they were hoisted up by a rescue chopper, officials said.

The operation marks the first time a high-tech US Navy drone deployed to the Middle East was used to conduct a rescue mission.

While Iran is “suggesting” that the downing of the Apache helicopter might have been an accident, that was enough for President Trump to order retaliatory strikes. The president’s final red line in Iran is the lives of American troops, it seems.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 9, 2026

According to a later post by CENTCOM, the targets were related to offensive capability by the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM forces struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz with precision munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets. The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional waters.

And it seems that finally, FINALLY, President Trump has come to the realization that Iran has been playing for time, and they have no interest in making a deal after making their own attacks on U.S. bases in the area on Wednesday morning. The only thing they understand is power, and the president looks to be on the verge of giving them a demonstration.

The commander-in-chief said he is “getting close to ordering new strikes against Iranian power plants and bridges” in a phone call with Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Wednesday.

Trump also accused Iran in the phone call of “tapping the United States along when it comes to the negotiating process.”

“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!” Trump wrote in a thunderous post Wednesday morning, after stating that the country’s military infrastructure and leadership were in disarray.

“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore – They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! ” he added.

And the president reiterated that in the Oval Office as well.

President Trump, taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, said the U.S. is going to hit Iran “hard” again today while still looking for a deal.

The president also praised the rescue of the U.S. Army members saved from the water when their Apache helicopter was shot down.

“We’ll see what happens,” the president said. “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today in case you miss it, in case you don’t turn on your television set. And we’ll see what happens with a deal. We were — we were really close to a deal but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers because you know what, they dealt with some very stupid presidents. I have to say that, I’m embarrassed to say that, some very stupid people were sitting here.”

President Trump also revealed that there has been a secret operation to keep oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, and that even though prices are still high, this is the reason they haven’t gotten higher.
https://twitter.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/2064774484373246257
Trump is correct that once the war is over, oil prices will drop. But that means the war has to be OVER. And he isn’t going to get a deal, at least not the one he has traditionally envisioned, because he isn’t dealing with a rational government in Iran. The Islamic regime is a military junta wearing theocratic robes, and they see no difference between defeat and death. And frankly, they would prefer the latter, for them and the population of Iran. The president needs to cut off the head of the snake instead of trying to feed it so it won’t bite back. Once that is done, then perhaps a deal can be struck with rational actors who rise to power. Because the honest truth is, President Trump needs to realize that HE was the sucker sitting in the Oval Office this time. If he’s finally at that realization, and that Iran cannot be trusted in any sense, then it’s past time to finish the job.

Featured image: President Trump at the March 26, 2026 Cabinet meeting, official White House photo by Emily J. Higgins, cropped, public domain