President Donald Trump described Iranian protesters being shot “between the eyes” by snipers as he subjected a room full of White House guests made up largely of children to a rant about the Iran war on Tuesday.
Trump gave the group of children, reporters and some pro athletes a stark and somewhat gory look into the Iran war as he did his usual weave with the cameras rolling to repeat his most pressing talking points in graphic terms. He then followed it up by launching into a Q&A session with the media, leaving his young guests standing awkwardly by as he rambled on about unrelated issues.
In one of the more surreal moments, the president was asked by a reporter — with a young child standing directly beside him — whether he believed Iranian protesters could topple their government if armed by the U.S., and the president responded by describing the brutal massacre of protesters.
“They don’t have any guns. You can have 200,000 people protesting and have five or six sick people with guns, and when they start shooting them right between the eyes, and you see a guy fall, and another one fall, and you have no guns.” Trump, surrounded by the kids, said.
“They killed 42,000 people last month. 42,000 unarmed protesters.”
He didn’t end there, reaching back to the protests after the killing of a 22-year-old Iranian woman in the custody of Iran’s religious police in 2022 and 2023 and describing again how snipers were allegedly deployed to kill unarmed protesters, although the president erroneously described it as having occurred “last year.”
Explaining how the massive throngs of protesters, including women, took to the streets after Mahsa Amini’s killing, Trump said: “Everyone thought that was the end of Iran.”
“And then, suddenly, a woman dropped dead with a bullet right there. Always right there,” the president said, pointing to the space between his eyes.
Trump also, at one point, launched into a recollection of the U.S. interception of a vessel that tried to breach the blockade the Trump administration has imposed around the Strait of Hormuz, which itself remains largely shut down by Iranian forces including minelayers. In an odd aside, he turned to golfer Gary Player standing behind him and addressed him by name, repeating his refrain that one single shot to the vessel’s engine from a U.S. Navy ship disabled the vessel.
The bizarre scene comes as Trump’s war with Iran is now well into its third month and there is little sign that negotiations around a resolution to the conflict have restarted with any intention. The Strait of Hormuz remains shut down and blockaded by U.S. forces, with vessels unwilling to risk mines or the potential of being fired upon by Iranian vessels in the key waterway.
Oil prices continue to rise, although the Trump administration said this week it would begin escorting vessels through the strait individually.
He was joined at his event on Tuesday by Cabinet Secretaries Linda McMahon, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latter of whom launched into his own extended discussion about the president’s physical fitness test after some prompting by Trump — one of the few on-topic moments of the event.
Trump’s tendency to rant about news-of-the-day issues and a selection of key favorites, like his D.C. beautification initiative, is often on display these days at White House events. Tuesday’s marked the first time it has occurred in front of a crowd of children, who were also subjected to a short rant about transgender rights and “men in women’s sports”.
“I’ve never had one person say it’s important we allow women to be challenged by men in women’s sports,” the president said, turning to the children next to him. “I’ve been president for five years.”
The president also threatened Iran again, issuing a scaled-down version of his more dire warning to end Iran’s civilization: “We don’t want to go in and kill people, really don’t.”
But U.S. forces appear little closer to ending effective Iranian control of the strait and have made no public progress on the administration’s other stated objectives, which include securing Iran’s remaining enriched nuclear material, fully demolishing the Iranian enrichment program, ending the threat of Iran’s ballistic missiles, or even toppling the regime itself. All of these objectives, and more, have been offered by the president, members of his team, and the White House’s allies in Congress for the strikes that began on Feb. 28 — none of which have been achieved.
Trump has frequently turned to issuing grave threats towards Iran’s country as a whole, including vowing that U.S. forces would strike bridges and power plants as well as a particularly grim declaration on the eve of a ceasefire deadline to end Iranian civilization.
He echoed that one on Monday, warning that Iran would be “blown off the face of the Earth” if U.S. forces or vessels in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked.
During his Q&A with reporters on Tuesday, Trump only said that he would “let you know”, referring to the press, when he thought Iran had formally violated the ceasefire amid continued reports of U.S. vessels being fired upon.
