Iran Made a Poor Choice. Now They Pay.

So the IRGC, very bad people, they hit a ship, a Cyprus-flagged containership, beautiful ship, hardworking crew, and they hit it with a missile and drones, the IRGC did, blew up the engine room — beautiful engine, the best engine, now it’s on fire, a tremendous fire, the biggest fire — and now one of those people, a civilian, a very hardworking person, is missing. Sad. Very sad, the saddest. I told them — I told Iran, I told the hard-liners, and the hard-liners are tough people, very tough, but not as tough as me — I said don’t do it, beautiful negotiation, the art of the deal, and they did it anyway. And now they pay. Beautiful, the way it works, believe me, the way the deal works.

Hegseth, my Secretary of Defense, tremendous Secretary, tougher than all the other Secretaries of Defense combined, and there have been some very tough ones, believe me, he said it perfectly, he said Iran made a poor choice, and now they pay. That is what I said. That is what I always said. I always said it. I said it on Tuesday. I said it on Truth Social. I said it at the rallies. I said it before the deal. I said it after the deal. I said it during the deal. The deal, by the way, the deal is working. The deal is working better than anybody thought. The deal is working because Iran made a poor choice and now they pay, and that was the deal all along. I designed it, very smartly, the smartest deal, and Iran walked right into it, beautiful trap, the biggest trap in history, the most tremendous.

We’ve been doing this all month, just like when we struck their military sites after the last tanker attack, and before that when we launched new strikes after that other tanker was hit. And before THAT, the Iranian drones attacked Bahrain and hit that other tanker. People forget! They have a terrible memory. Not me, I have a perfect memory. I remember every Iranian move before the Iranians make it. I told my uncle, my uncle, the great professor at MIT, very famous professor, smartest genes, very good genes, I said Uncle, this is going to happen, the IRGC is going to do something very bad, before the deal, before the strikes, before the hard-liners, before anybody knew anything, I knew. I always know. I know more than the generals. I know more than the admirals. I know more than the lawyers. I know more than the historians. I know more than anybody. That is what they say, the best people, very smart people, the generals, the admirals, tremendous, the kind you don’t see anymore, not like the admirals we had before, weak losers, low energy, the worst.

So the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait, tremendous Strait, beautiful geography, very important, twenty percent of the world’s oil, maybe more, the most in history, goes through the Strait, and Iran said they closed it. Closed it! They can’t close it. I closed it. We closed it. The United States closed it for them. Our military, the greatest military in the world, more tremendous than any military, the most beautiful ships, by far, they moved that oil for me, eight hundred ships, three hundred and eighty million barrels of crude, since May, since early May, the best May in history, the most oil ever moved, and they think they own the Strait. They don’t own the Strait. I own the Strait. The United States owns the Strait. We have the biggest Navy, by far, the most beautiful ships in the world, the most tremendous, and Iran has some boats, little boats, fast boats, the kind that go fast but not far, and they have missiles, and they have drones, and now they have less missiles and less drones, and they have a lot less radars.

I drew a line on the map with a Sharpie, a beautiful red Sharpie, the best Sharpie, and I said the Strait is open. Iran said no, the Strait is closed. So I erased their word with bombs. WINNING, very winning, believe me. We bombed the radars, the launchers, the depots, the storage. Bandar Abbas, Chabahar. BIGGEST EXPLOSIONS in the history of military strikes, maybe ever. The historians are saying, ‘Lincoln was great, but Lincoln never had to bomb Bandar Abbas, and if he did, he would have used my missiles.’ Lincoln was great, but he didn’t have the missiles. I have the missiles. Believe me.

I had nothing to do with them hitting the ship. I wasn’t even there. I was playing golf, playing beautifully. Hole in one on the eighth, maybe the ninth. Beautiful. But the minute they did it, I said, bomb the radars. So we bombed the radars. WINNING, very winning. Now they’re crying, calling the UN, the UN is a joke, but they’re crying. I know more about tolls than anyone, my uncle, great professor at MIT, he designed the best toll booths, but these guys, they’re charging a toll in the water. So I let them. It was a trap. A BEAUTIFUL TRAP.

Some people, the losers, the low IQ people, very low IQ, the kind that go on cable news and have ratings that are terrible, the worst ratings in the history of ratings, they are saying the deal failed. The deal didn’t fail. The deal succeeded. I succeeded. The deal was a tremendous success. It got Iran to make a poor choice, and then they pay. That is the deal. That is what the deal does. The deal isn’t unraveling, it’s evolving. 4D CHESS. I wanted them to feel the pain of no ships, more than 800 ships, 380 million barrels of crude, I know the numbers, the BEST NUMBERS. I let them close it, and then I blew up their toys. They think they won. They walked right into it, beautiful trap, the biggest trap in history, the most tremendous, and now they pay. The deal is the biggest win in the history of wins, and the best people, the smart people, the very smart people, the BEST people, they are saying so, they are saying this is exactly what I planned, four dimensional chess, four D chess, while they are playing checkers, beautiful chess.

And the generals, the tough generals, much tougher than the generals we had before, the generals under the previous administration, very weak, very sad, low energy, the worst generals in the history of generals, these generals came to me with tears, the toughest men, with tears in their eyes, and they said Sir, Sir, you did it again, you set the trap, the beautiful trap, the launchers are destroyed, thank you SIR. And I said, ‘You’re welcome, soldiers.’ And they cried some more. They love me. The troops love me. The people in the Strait, they love me, they’re paying a toll to my navy now, a beautiful toll, much better than the Iranian toll.

And the people, the people who voted for me, the supporters, the very loyal people, they don’t really understand the deal, they wouldn’t understand it, very complicated, very smart deal, but they will, they will understand it when Iran pays, and I will make them understand it. The deal is for them, the deal is for the workers, the deal is for me — I mean for us — for us, mostly for us, mostly for me, but the workers, yes, the workers will be tremendous, and Iran is paying right now, and they will pay for a long time, believe me, for a very long time, the longest.

So to the family, the family of the missing person, the civilian, the hardworking person, very sad, I want to say we are with you, we are praying for you, believe me, I am praying, the most religious president, more religious than the religious people, and we will get that person back, we will get them back, beautiful, the best rescuers, the Navy, the Coast Guard, tremendous people, and Iran made a poor choice, and now they pay, and that is what is happening, and the smart people know it, and the best people are saying it, and I am telling you, I am telling everybody, the most tremendous, the biggest, the best, believe me.

Working file. Documented conduct anchors: Wall Street Journal reporting on the interim-deal status; IRGC drone and missile strikes on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz (27 June 2026 Bahrain tanker; 28 June 2026 tanker attack; Cyprus-flagged containership attack with missing civilian); U.S. military strikes on Iranian military sites (28 June 2026; 8 July 2026; latest strikes on Bandar Abbas and Chabahar radar/launcher/depot targets); Secretary Hegseth statement, “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”; documented U.S. Navy oil-transit operation in the Strait (≈800 ships; ≈380 million barrels of crude since May 2026); documented rhetorical patterns — “4D chess” / “art of the deal” / Sharpie-map / “perfect memory” / genealogical-MIT-uncle / Lincoln-comparison / “sir, sir” / “I closed it” / “I have the missiles.”