Trump says Iran navy, air force destroyed, Germany ‘helping out’

Trump contradicts Rubio by saying US attacked Iran because ‘he had a feeling’ Tehran would attack Washington first.Published On 3 Mar 2026US President Donald Trump has said his administration’s war against Iran “successfully knocked out” the country’s air force and navy.“We’re doing very well,” Trump said on Tuesday, during a news conference at the White House with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before their meeting.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Inside the US-Israel plan to assassinate Iran’s Khameneilist 2 of 3IAEA confirms buildings damaged at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facilitylist 3 of 3Babies evacuated from Iranian hospital damaged in US-Israeli strikesend of list“They have no navy; it’s been knocked out. They have no air force; it’s been knocked out. They have no air detection – that’s been knocked out,” Trump said.Trump’s comments came on the fourth day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran as Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz and continued its retaliatory missile and drone attacks on US and allied targets across the Gulf region.‘Had a feeling’Trump said he had ordered the attack against Iran on Saturday because he “had a feeling” that Iran would strike first as negotiations over its nuclear programme stalled.Asked if Israel might have “forced” his hand on attacking Iran, Trump responded, “No, actually, I might have forced their hand.”On Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said that the US attacked Iran because it knew Israel was about to bomb that country, and because the Trump administration believed that Iran would then strike US facilities in the region.Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said Trump’s comments are “going to have a tremendous place in the US because the US president doesn’t have the power to declare war unless there is a threat to the US.”“The US president has not offered any evidence of that,” she said.Oil prices riseMeanwhile, Merz, who is in Washington, DC to discuss a trade deal with the US as well as Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, voiced support for the US-Israeli war on Iran. But he said he hoped it would end soon, since it was hurting the global economy.