President Donald Trump told CBS News on Monday that the war with Iran is “very complete, pretty much.” Then, just hours later, he told House Republicans that “we haven’t won enough” and vowed to “go forward more determined than ever.”
The whiplash came during a day of stunning contradictions from the president about virtually every aspect of the conflict—even as oil prices spiked again amid fears of a prolonged disruption to global energy supplies.
Q: You said the war is 'very complete.' But your defense secretary says 'this is just the beginning.' So which is it?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 9, 2026
TRUMP: You could say both pic.twitter.com/4orXm5ZM4b
Trump’s claim that the war was basically over arrived around the same time the Defense Department’s rapid response account posted “We have Only Just Begun to Fight” on Twitter, with no additional context. Days earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had told 60 Minutes that “this is only just the beginning.”
The president’s assessment of Iran’s military capabilities was equally chaotic. In his CBS interview, Trump declared Iran has “no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force” and that “they’ve shot everything they have to shoot.”
At his news conference later that day? Iran’s navy was merely “mostly sunk.” Its missile capacity was “down to about 10%, maybe less.” The drones were “down to probably 25%.”
Trump also kept changing his ship count. During his speech to House Republicans, he claimed the US had sunk 46 Iranian vessels. Minutes later at his news conference, it was 50. Then 51.
On Iranian leadership, Trump said “everything they have is gone, including their leadership” and “they have no leadership.” Seven minutes later, he was expressing disappointment about the new supreme leader—Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the leader US strikes killed—saying he thinks it will “lead to just more of the same problem.”
Then there’s the elementary school bombing. Trump claimed Saturday that Iran bombed its own school in Minab, despite extensive evidence pointing to a US strike. On Monday, he suggested Iran might have obtained a “generic” Tomahawk missile—a weapon Tehran isn’t known to possess.
OMG a reporter confronts Donald Trump about Iran bombed its own elementary school with an American Tomahawk missile ridiciliously 😂🤣😭 pic.twitter.com/k7ld66Xk9W
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) March 9, 2026
When a reporter noted that Hegseth, standing beside Trump on Saturday, declined to back up the Iran claim, the president backpedaled: “I just didn’t know enough about it.”
Meanwhile, a top Iranian official told CNN that Tehran is prepared for a prolonged conflict, and that only “economic pain” will force the US to negotiate. Threats to transit through the Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil flows—continue to mount.
The war has already caused the largest oil market disruption in history.