On Iran’s military capabilities, Trump and U.S. intelligence point in different directions

On Monday morning, a reporter asked Donald Trump why the U.S. war with Iran is ongoing if, as he’s said, Iran’s military has been obliterated. It wasn’t entirely clear whether the president fully understood the question, since he responded by recommitting to the premise of the inquiry.

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“They can’t fight back,” he said. “They have no capability.”

The rhetoric was certainly familiar. As recently as two weeks ago, the Republican boasted, “We literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country, [and] they can’t do a thing about it.” Weeks earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth similarly bragged about “complete control of Iranian skies” and “uncontested airspace.”

During his national address from the White House last week, Trump went so far as to say of Iran, “They have no anti-aircraft equipment. … We are unstoppable as a military force.”

The comments came before Iran shot down an F-15E fighter jet — the first time in 23 years that a U.S. fighter jet was downed by enemy fire — in addition to striking two Blackhawk helicopters and an attack jet that were assisting in the search-and-rescue effort.