NEW: Trump THREATENS Kharg Island TAKEOVER

[0:10] So now, American missiles raining down on parts of Iran yet again. [0:15] The country's trading strikes for a second straight day. [0:18] And the president moments ago, you heard the interview here on Fox saying there was more where that came from. [0:23] There's a lot to get to, folks. [0:25] Good morning, everybody. [0:25] A lot of headlines as we come on the air on this Thursday morning in New York City. [0:29] I'm Bill Hemmer. [0:30] Good morning. [0:30] Good morning. [0:31] I'm Dana Perino, and this is America's Newsroom. [0:33] So we did not anticipate that President Trump interview on Fox & Friends or a few headlines that you noted. [0:38] Yeah. [0:38] The suggestion about more bombing later tonight, you know, he signaled that in the Oval Office yesterday at noon when we were watching and followed through on that as well. [0:48] Pete Hegseth said something similar. [0:50] He was traveling at Gitmo and also at CENTCOM in Tampa, Florida. [0:54] So just watching that. [0:55] Then he said toward the end of that interview, yes, we are still talking to them. [0:59] So according to the president, there is still diplomacy behind the scenes there in the Middle East. [1:04] So we'll get you the other headlines. [1:05] President Trump is threatening these dire consequences for Iran if it continues to drag its feet on a peace deal. [1:11] And the president describes last night's strikes as violent and vicious. [1:14] Also, he says the U.S. fired 49 Tomahawk missiles. [1:18] Many of them aim toward the area of Tehran. [1:21] We'll show you that on the map in a moment here. [1:23] He's also vowing to keep hitting Iran until a deal is reached. [1:26] Here is what he said a moment ago with our colleagues on Fox & Friends. [1:29] Meanwhile, new video from CENTCOM shows U.S. forces firing Hellfire missiles at tankers trying to move Iranian oil. [1:57] It's the third ship disabled this week as the U.S. continues to squeeze Tehran's economy. [2:02] We have team coverage. [2:03] Lawrence Simonetti on what the president calls a secret mission to sneak oil through the Strait of Hormuz. [2:08] But first, let's go to Trey Yinks. [2:09] He's also spoken to the president several times in the last 24 hours, and he is live from Tel Aviv. [2:14] Good morning, Trey. [2:16] Yeah, hey, Dana. [2:17] Good morning. [2:17] Overnight, the United States unleashed powerful strikes against the Iranian regime. [2:22] U.S. Central Command says a variety of targets were hit, including Iranian surveillance sites and air defense systems. [2:29] Speaking from the Situation Room overnight, President Trump told Fox News 49 Tomahawk missiles hit locations as close as 40 miles from the capital of Tehran. [2:38] Positions were also targeted along the southwestern part of the country. [2:42] The president described the strikes as violent and vicious. [2:45] Also, President Trump says top Iranian officials called him directly, asking him to stop the bombing. [2:50] Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke before the strikes began. [2:55] Instead, they're going to have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America. [3:01] And that's not because we want to restart anything. [3:04] We don't have to restart. [3:05] It's because we are, the War Department is prepared to set the terms to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects. [3:13] Now, in response, the Iranians launched ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as Jordan. [3:20] The Jordanian Army says they took down 20 incoming missiles. [3:24] Today, the Iranians are saying they're going to close the Strait of Hormuz. [3:28] They've said this before, but we learned yesterday the United States was still getting millions of barrels of oil out of the Persian Gulf, [3:35] even as the Iranians were making these statements. [3:37] And so a significant development here, though, just last hour, as President Trump was on Fox & Friends and also posting on True Social, [3:45] he says he's going to hit the Iranians again tonight and later may take Karg Island. [3:50] Bill, Dana? [3:51] All right. [3:51] Trey, let me ask you, though, because I hear some sirens in the background. [3:54] That could just be nothing. [3:55] But what are you expecting there in the next few hours, 24 hours? [3:59] Look, the Israeli military remains on high alert because they are waiting to see how the Iranians are going to respond to this current situation. [4:09] I spoke with an Israeli official last hour who said the president is in the bazaar. [4:14] He's speaking Persian. [4:15] And this was an indication the Israelis believe that President Trump is now speaking the language of the Iranians. [4:21] And the president told me last night he was in the Situation Room alongside Vice President J.D. Vance and Special Envoys Kushner and Wyckoff. [4:28] And he said the Iranians only understand the language of force. [4:32] And that's exactly what we saw last night, those 49 Tomahawk missiles. [4:36] There were U.S. fighter jets over the skies of Iran. [4:38] Within hours, the Iranians again lost control of the skies of their own country. [4:43] And what we saw were shaping operations by U.S. Central Command. [4:46] They were going after the radar systems and the air defense that remains inside the country. [4:50] This is a message to Tehran. [4:53] Sign the deal or the bombing campaign will continue and you can't defend yourselves. [4:57] Guys? [4:57] Trey Yanks, thank you. [4:58] And please come back if you have any other breaking news. [5:00] Bill? [5:01] Hey, Dana, let's go ahead and show you what we have now on the maps and what's transpired from U.S. Central Command on Wednesday. [5:08] Self-defense strikes described by the United States. [5:10] And here's what happened overnight. [5:12] Talked a lot about the Strait of Hormuz, that choke point where so much travel goes by the sea. [5:17] Okay, so this is Qashem Island, Minab, Syriq as well. [5:21] They were all hit overnight. [5:23] The area of Isfahan apparently taking hits as well. [5:26] What the president told Trey is that 49 Tomahawk missiles aimed at targets about 40 miles outside of Tehran. [5:32] That might fit for Isfahan and the nuclear program that had been developed in that area. [5:38] Now, with regard to Karg Island, this all came out in the last 60 minutes or so. [5:42] The reason why Karg Island is so significant, it's well off the shore here. [5:46] Well off, I'm saying 10, 15 miles, okay? [5:49] But it's in deeper water. [5:50] That's the point. [5:51] So you can get these giant vessels from all over the world that can easily pull up the Karg Island. [5:55] They can load the oil onto their vessels and then move their way down through the Strait of Hormuz in this direction here. [6:02] The reason why this is so significant is because if you take control of Karg Island, [6:07] you will take control yet again of the economy of Iran. [6:11] Many military analysts coming on our air over the past several months said this is what you need to do. [6:16] It hasn't been done. [6:17] But if you take Karg Island, you have to control it. [6:20] And that means you put U.S. men and women in danger of taking fire on behalf of Iran. [6:25] So keep that in mind if indeed there is a move on Karg Island sometime tonight or in the coming days. [6:30] Iran, meanwhile, has not sat back. [6:33] They still have drone capability. [6:35] They still have missile capability. [6:36] And for the second straight night, we know they took aim at a U.S. air base that houses the F-35 in Jordan. [6:42] We know overnight they've gone off to the Fifth Fleet again here stationed in Bahrain. [6:47] And they've taken aim at Kuwait as well. [6:49] The Kuwaitis are saying just about two hours ago that they engaged 24 incoming drones over the past, sorry, past 48 hours time, 24 drones in for Kuwait. [7:00] Now, with regard to our firepower, I know there's a lot on this map. [7:05] There's a reason why there's a lot on this map, because the U.S. naval assets are significant throughout the Middle East. [7:11] And just so you can zero in, that's the Strait of Hormuz. [7:13] Here's Tehran approximately up there in that part of the map. [7:18] Let's leave this alone for a moment and talk about what's happening with the ceasefire. [7:22] So there was a ceasefire declared in early April now. [7:25] And a lot of people have debated whether or not it's a real ceasefire or whether or not the tit-for-tat continues. [7:31] This is what we can say. [7:32] Depending on how you define a ceasefire, it has held reasonably well for 60-plus days. [7:39] That's not to suggest that there hasn't been tit-for-tat. [7:42] The U.S. going after Iran, Iran going after Israel, and return fire on behalf of the Israelis. [7:48] But let me take you to the far left part of this screen, okay? [7:51] This is it the past several days. [7:54] Today is Thursday. [7:55] On Tuesday now, the U.S. struck back after a U.S. Apache helicopter that had been patrolling the coastline of Amman took a drone. [8:05] And based on the description we're getting from the Pentagon, that drone lodged itself in between the cockpit of two pilots. [8:12] They took the Apache down and went in the waters at sunset. [8:15] They waited there for two hours until an unmanned drone, a water vessel, came across the ocean, rescued these two pilots, [8:24] and pulled them to safety on board a helicopter. [8:25] So the U.S. then, and the president, convinced that they needed to take action. [8:31] And that is what we have seen based on the last two nights. [8:34] So, Jimmy, we'll slide over here and show you one more map. [8:38] So we talked a lot about the Strait of Hormuz. [8:40] This is the U.S. blockade, which still exists today, okay? [8:43] It was established here off the eastern tip of Amman, heading right over to the border between Iran and Pakistan. [8:50] This has been successful, okay? [8:52] If you look at the numbers here, nine vessels have been disabled, [8:55] meaning they were taking warning signs on behalf of the U.S. military not to go to an Iranian port, [9:02] not to make a visit, not to make a stop. [9:04] And apparently, for whatever reason, those vessels did not listen, [9:08] and they were engaged and disabled, including one in the last 24 hours [9:11] that apparently was flying under an Indian flag. [9:13] We'll try and confirm that in a moment here. [9:15] In the meantime, you had 135 ships. [9:19] These are ocean-going vessels that have been redirected, [9:21] which means they did stop at Iranian port or had the intent to go to an Iranian port, [9:28] and that is the number we have thus far. [9:30] There's some video here of the Gulf of Amman at one of those vessels. [9:32] These are huge ocean-going craft. [9:34] They can stay at sea for months at a time, go all over the world. [9:38] This is some video that CENCOM had shared with us showing that vessel being disabled. [9:42] So I hope all of that gives you a bit of perspective for where we think this conflict is [9:48] at the moment on this Thursday morning. [9:51] With that, I'll go back to Dana across the board. [9:52] An excellent recap. [9:53] Thank you so much. [9:54] And let's bring in retired Navy SEAL officer Mike Cirelli. [9:57] I want to ask you about just militarily in terms of the strategy of announcing that strikes are coming, [10:03] because sometimes you have the element of surprise, but now what does this do? [10:08] I guess it possibly is to try to get them to come to the table before they get hit? [10:14] Yeah, the reason we can expose that we're going to hit them is, one, because we have air dominance. [10:18] And last night was a perfect example. [10:20] We hit air defenses, radar and surveillance systems, as well as command and control nodes. [10:26] What Trump has done is basically cleared the highway for what's to come. [10:29] He's lowered the risk to troops and our strike fighters. [10:33] But you would not do that on a different occasion in a war where we did not have that dominance. [10:39] And, Dana, really, what happens moving forward is like a scene from a movie. [10:43] You've got a hostage tied to the chair, Iran. [10:46] They're already bloodied up. [10:48] Trump has essentially come in and laid out the tools. [10:50] You've got those pliers that rip out finger nails. [10:52] You've got the ball pin hammer. [10:54] And he's essentially saying we are going to continue to hit you. [10:57] It's going to become more painful and more expensive with each subsequent hit. [11:03] Until you sign that deal. [11:05] But the deal is important. [11:06] It's got to look at the complete opposite of the JCPOA. [11:10] We're not going to release sanctions for concessions later. [11:14] There's got to be conditions and there's got to be consequences and there has to be timelines. [11:17] So, I think if the Iranians are watching this, they need to take the president at its word. [11:23] At his word, rather. [11:24] He said we're going back again tonight. [11:26] Let's see if that happens. [11:28] Here's what he said in the Oval Office yesterday. [11:30] Quickly, question and answer. [11:31] Are you going to go back to attack, or are you thinking of attacking Iranian power plants and bridges as you've... [11:38] Well, I'm not going to say that to you, but I can do that. [11:41] So, the power plants and the bridges were not hit. [11:44] But the radar sites were hit. [11:45] But what he did say is that they were going back to hit different targets again tonight, meaning last night, which they did. [11:52] Now, you've got these competing opinions, and here's one from the Wall Street Journal. [11:57] Trump needs a new Iran strategy. [11:59] He has hope for Iranian concessions, but he abandoned much of his leverage by showing he would not count in his return to war. [12:06] The way for Mr. Trump to right the ship is to go on offense, but that means more than pounding Iran. [12:11] The task at hand is to open the strait to allied ships. [12:15] On the same day, the New York Post came out with a scathing editorial saying he's got people around him who's giving him bad advice. [12:22] Do you think the commander-in-chief has been given bad advice during this conflict? [12:28] No, I don't. [12:29] You know, so Trump has given diplomacy a shot here, coercive diplomacy, and he's given him grace, and the Iranians slapped that hand away. [12:36] So now he's using really calculated escalation until he gets them to where he wants. [12:42] But, guys, look at the blockade. [12:44] Economically, they're crippled. [12:45] Now, can he strike civilian or, I would say, rather than civilian mission-critical infrastructure? [12:50] Yes, that's on the plate, but he's using escalation to get to that point. [12:55] And he's keeping the Persian people in mind. [12:57] He does not want to create, you know, overdue or undue hardship to them. [13:03] But for the Persian people, and they know this, they would rather have freedom under hardship rather than no freedom at all. [13:10] But it would be crippling to the Iranian regime if they lose power, desalinization plants, and even some of their oil infrastructure. [13:17] And that's where carguiling comes into play. [13:20] All right, Mike Cirelli, thank you so much for joining us this morning on this breaking news. [13:24] We appreciate it. [13:25] Thanks, guys.