Administration of Donald J. Trump, 2026
March 11, 2026
The President. Okay. Thank you very much. I think it was a great trip, and we have very good news on the war front. Namely, they are absolutely being destroyed. Iran is being absolutely decimated. That's all I can say.
U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. President Trump, what have you heard about this bulletin that some law enforcement put out about a possible Iran revenge plot in California, where there would be some kind of a boat offshore launching drones——
The President. Yes.
Q. ——towards the coast?
The President. It's being investigated. But you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come. The war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen, and this is other countries telling me too. Big countries, powerful countries. They said they've never seen anything like it.
Q. President Trump——
The President. And they also agree with what I'm doing. They say it's an evil country, and it's been for 47 years that way.
Counterterrorism and Homeland Security/Illegal Immigration
Q. And if they try to hit us back, have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the U.S. right now?
The President. I have been, and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border. But we know where most of them are. We've got our eye on all of them, I think.
Q. Is it dozens?
The President. They came in through the open border policies of Sleepy Joe Biden, one of the worst—the worst President in the history of our country. And we've got our eyes on all of them. But the war itself is being prosecuted at a level that nobody has seen before. It's pretty, it's pretty amazing to watch.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve/Gasoline Costs
Q. Can you give us a timeline on when you're planning to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a timeline of when that could happen?
The President. We're going to be doing it very quickly, and then we'll fill it up. We'll fill up our reserves. You know, if you remember, I filled them up, and then I had a deal to go at the highest level, a level that's never been. And Schumer and the Democrats, for $25. And it was turned down. You remember that, Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News]. Almost before your time, but not quite.
But it was—we had a deal at $25. Think of that: $25 a barrel, and the Democrats turned it down. We were going to fill—we were going to tap it out like it's never been. But they turned that down, and now it's a lot higher.
Oil Markets and Prices/U.S. Military Operations in Iran
Q. Mr. President, are you considering having the U.S. Treasury Department buy oil futures as a means to keep the oil prices down or bring the oil prices down?
The President. Well, we're going to be in very good shape. You see what's happening. They are pretty much at the end of the line. Doesn't mean we're going to end it immediately, but they are—they've got no navy, they've got no air force, they've got no anti–air traffic anything. They have no systems of control.
We're just riding free range over that country. And now we're going to look very strongly at the Straits. The Straits are in great shape. We've knocked out all of their boats. They have some missiles, but not very many. I think we're in very good—we're in very good shape.
The main thing is, we have to win this thing. Win it quickly, but win it. And there are many people—I'm just watching some of the news. Most people say it's already been won. It's just a question of when. When do we stop?
We don't want to let it regrow. And ideally, we'd like to see somebody in there that knows what they're doing. In other words, they can build a country.
Now, one other thing: We can hit sections of Tehran and other places that, if you do it, it will be almost impossible for them to rebuild their country. And we don't want that. But we can hit electric—we could take apart their electric capacity within 1 hour, and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it. So, ideally, we're not going to be doing that.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
NOTE: The President spoke at 7:45 p.m. on the tarmac after exiting Air Force One. In his remarks, he referred to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
Categories: Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters, Joint Base Andrews, MD.
Locations: Joint Base Andrews, MD.
Names: Biden, Joseph R., Jr.; Schumer, Charles E.
Subjects: Border security; Counterterrorism and homeland security; Iran, commercial transit through Strait of Hormuz; Iran, U.S. military operations; Maryland, Joint Base Andrews; Maryland, President's visit; News media, Presidential interviews; Oil markets and prices; Senate minority leader; Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
DCPD Number: DCPD202600166.