Declaring that “this was one of our better Easters,” President Donald Trump started his news conference Monday by speaking about the dramatic rescue of two U.S. airmen in Iran over the weekend.
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Trump says 21 aircraft came to help rescue airmen who crashed in Iran
The president began describing the rescue efforts from Friday and over the weekend after two airmen ejected and landed alive “deep in enemy territory” in Iran.
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Trump said 21 aircraft were deployed to help with the search and rescue in the first wave, flying for hours under “very, very heavy enemy fire.” He said the U.S. has one helicopter with many bullets in it.
Trump says downed officer rushed to get away from the crash site
Trump says the downed weapons officer followed his training to get as far away from the crash site as possible.
When a plane crashes in hostile territory, “they all head right to that site, you want to be as far away as you can,” Trump said.
READ MORE: What to know about the daring rescue of two U.S. aviators shot down in Iran
Trump says the officer was “bleeding profusely” but was able climb mountainous terrain and contact U.S. forces to communicate his location. Rescuers mobilized a massive response that included subterfuge to confuse the Iranians about where they were looking.
Trump offers more details of dramatic airman rescue
The president described the scale of the operation undertaken by the U.S. to rescue the second airman from the downed aircraft — which included 155 aircraft.
More specifically, it included four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, among others, Trump said.
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Much of it was an effort to throw off the Iranians, who were also looking for the missing crew member, the president said.
“We were bringing them all over and a lot of it was subterfuge,” Trump said. “We wanted to have them think he was in a different location.”
Trump threatens to jail journalist who first reported on downed airman
Trump threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that U.S. forces were searching for an F-15 weapons officer shot down in Iran, if they don’t reveal their sources.
“The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say, and that doesn’t last long,” Trump said.
Trump didn’t name the journalist or news organization. He said the leak tipped off the Iranians, endangering the officer and his rescuers. He called the leaker “a sick person.”
Hegseth draws parallels between the story of Easter and rescued airman
The Defense secretary, who has frequently infused his leadership of the Pentagon with references to Christianity and the language of his faith, said the airman who evaded capture for more than a day was shot down on Good Friday, “hidden in a cave” on Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, “a pilot reborn, all home and accounted for.”
Hegseth said that when the airman was finally able to activate an emergency transponder, his first transmitted message was: “God is good.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe says top-secret technology led to rescue of downed airman
Speaking at a White House press conference, Ratcliffe said the agency used “exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service” possesses to locate the aviator after the F-15 was shot down in Iran.
At the same time, the CIA mounted a deception operation to mislead the Iranians who were looking.
Ratcliffe said the search and rescue operation was “comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert.”
The CIA declined to respond to questions Monday about the kind of technology used to locate the airman.
Hegseth describes ‘unblinking’ mission in coordination call
The defense secretary said the coordination call held by national security officials during the daring mission to rescue the U.S. airmen lasted nearly two days straight.
“For 45 hours and 56 minutes, we held that call open for coordination,” Hegseth said, describing the call that was held in a secure facility. “Our mission was unblinking.”
Hegseth continued, “The meeting never stopped. The planning never ceased.”
U.S. warplane that crashed amid search for downed aviators was hit by enemy fire, general says
A U.S. aircraft that crashed amid the search for the downed airmen was hit by enemy fire while engaging Iranian forces, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.
Caine, speaking at a briefing at the White House, said that a U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft was “violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gun fight to keep them away” from the pilot of a downed F-15 fighter jet while also being “primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot.”
Caine said that after being hit, “this pilot continued to fight, continued the mission, and then upon exit, flew his aircraft into another country and determined that the airplane was not landable.”
The pilot then decided to eject over friendly territory and, according to Caine, “was quickly and safely recovered, and is doing fine.”
Trump says some military personnel opposed rescue operation
The president made the disclosure in response to a reporter’s question.
“Not everybody was on board,” Trump said. He continued: “There were military people that said, ‘You just don’t do this.'”
Referring to Hegseth and Caine, Trump made sure to clarify: “These two were totally on board.”
Trump insists Iranian civilians want the U.S. to keep bombing
Asked why Iranians would want him to follow up on his threat to blow up the country’s infrastructure, Trump says everyday citizens are “willing to suffer … in order to have freedom.”
“‘Please keep bombing. Do it,'” Trump claimed U.S. officials have heard Iranians say via “intercepts.”
“And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding,” he said.
He added, “And when we leave and we’re not hitting those areas, they’re saying, ‘Please come back, come back, come back.'”
U.S. fighter jet was downed by shoulder-held missile launcher, Trump says
Trump said the F-15E fighter jet that set off a two-day search-and-rescue operation was downed by a shoulder-launched rocket.
Trump described the weapon as a “hand-held shoulder missile— heat-seeking missile.”
The president went on to suggest that the fighter jet was ultimately downed not by the explosion but because of related damage to the aircraft’s engines.
“They shot it and it got sucked in right by the engine,” Trump said.
Trump dismisses that his threatened attacks on Iran’s infrastructure would be war crimes
Trump says he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten the destruction of Iran’s bridges and power plants if they don’t meet a Tuesday evening deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.
Trump says it would take 4 hours to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants
The president described the consequences that Iran would face if it didn’t reach a deal with the U.S. by Trump’s 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline.
“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” Trump said during his Monday news conference.
Power plants in Iran, he continued, would be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off limits in the U.S. response.
Trump lashes out at Pacific allies for not assisting in Iran fight
The president continued to grumble about NATO allies’ refusal to get involved in reopening the Strait of Hormuz and their hesitance to assist U.S. offensive operations against Iran.
But as he wrapped up his lengthy news conference Monday, he also fumed about the lack of support from Pacific allies.
“You know who else didn’t help us? South Korea didn’t help us,” Trump said. “You know who else didn’t help us? Australia didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Japan. We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea. We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well.”
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