Defense

Hegseth says military was ‘locked and loaded’ to carry out Trump’s Iran civilization threat

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by Filip Timotija - 04/08/26 9:03 AM ET

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by Filip Timotija - 04/08/26 9:03 AM ET

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” to carry out President Trump’s threat to eliminate Iranian civilization, a warning that was met with condemnation from Democrats and other critics.

“We had a target set, locked and loaded, of infrastructure, bridges, power plants. Remember, this is a terror regime. The military regime used all of these things for dual use, to fund their military to fund their their terror campaigns,” Hegseth told reporters during the Wednesday morning briefing. “We had a lot of legitimate targets. They knew exactly the scope of what we were capable of.”

On Tuesday morning, the president said in a post on Truth Social that a “whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again” unless “something revolutionary wonderful” happens to make a deal agreed by both Tehran and Washington.

The threat of the attacks on Iranian infrastructure prompted worries about possible war crimes and a number of Democratic lawmakers called for invoking the 25th Amendment and for the president to be removed from office. Some Republicans disagreed with the president’s warning, too, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas).

Trump reset the time on his threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” Tuesday evening after the country agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. In exchange, the U.S. and Israeli militaries would halt attacks on Iran.

“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” the president said Tuesday evening.

Hegseth also said Wednesday morning the U.S. military had its sights set on Kharg Island and argued that Iran “understood” that its ability to generate power, to “fuel their terrorist regime” was in Trump’s hands.

“That’s why they came to the table. He ultimately said, we can take it all from you. Your ability to export energy will be taken away, and the United States military has the ability to strike those things with impunity,” the Pentagon chief told reporters. “That type of threat is what brought them to the place where they effectively say, ‘Hey, okay, we want to cut this deal.’”

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