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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday declared Iran’s military capabilities "severely diminished" by the recent war, brushing off Democratic criticism of his strategy and denying that economic pressure forced him to negotiate.
"The War has diminished Iran!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"It doesn't, any longer, have an Air Force, a Navy, Antiaircraft Equipment, Radar, or practically anything else," he added.
Trump pushed back on suggestions that he agreed to the peace talks because of economic pressure stemming from Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
"We didn't meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are finished! We'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!" he wrote.
The remarks came as Iran announced its intention to impose tolls on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz 60 days after its blockade ends.
The Group of Seven (G7) countries and the United States have maintained that any such tolls would violate international law.
Trump also took aim at Democrats who have argued Iran emerged from the conflict in a stronger position than before it began.
"And yet the Democrats say that Iran is better off now than it was four months ago. Can you imagine getting away with that??? How stupid can some people be???" he wrote.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz began gradually resuming this week. Iran is still working to clear mines from the waterway, and all vessels passing through are required to submit applications to Iran's Persian Gulf Ship Control Authority (PGSA).
Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian electronically signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Wednesday evening, aimed at ending the conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran that began on Feb. 28.
Under the agreement, Washington and Tehran are expected to hold negotiations for 60 days, with the possibility of an extension, toward a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program and international sanctions.
U.S. President Donald Trump repeated his claim that Israel "would not exist today" without him, telling Axios that his power following the Iran war has "no limits", remarks that come as a forthcoming book reports he has privately compared himself to history's most powerful conquerors, including Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin and Hitler.
"If it weren't for me, Israel would not exist today," Trump said in a soon-to-be-released 45-minute interview with Axios' Marc Caputo, adding that his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane."
Trump made a similar statement earlier this week at the G7 summit in France.
"Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did," he said at the time, in remarks directed at Israel amid its continued attacks on Lebanon.
In the Axios interview, Trump named China's Xi Jinping and India's Narendra Modi as world leaders he most admires, describing Xi as "all business" and Modi as "a very tough cookie."
He declined to identify the leaders he considers weakest, instead pivoting to lament Russian President Vladimir Putin's absence from the G7, a group that was G8 prior to Russia's expulsion following its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Trump also lingered on French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to host him for a dinner at Versailles, calling that kind of imperial setting "my weakness."
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