President Donald Trump clarified comments he made on Wednesday about hundreds of millions of barrels of oil he claimed to have secretly taken from Iran.Trump hosted reporters on Wednesday morning at a bill signing ceremony in the Oval Office, where he claimed the mystery operation had been driving down global oil prices, even as fighting with Iran continues.“We’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it,” he said. “We’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil, millions of barrels every night.”
“We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar,” the president added. “Because we blasted the crap out of it.”
Wednesday afternoon, however, Trump reframed the operation in a statement posted to Truth Social.
“Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market,” he wrote. “More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait.”
“This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran. Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost,” the president concluded.
