Defense officials say US will not allow strait of Hormuz to remain ‘contested’, continue to target Iranian mine-laying ships
Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the US is continuing to destroy the Iranian navy. “This means going after Iran’s mine-laying capability and destroying their ability to attack commercial vessels,” he said.
This comes after Donald Trump said that American forces struck 28 mine-laying vessels this week along the strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth later remained resolute about the US’ intention to keep the vital waterway clear. “We have a plan for every option here. We’re working with our interagency partners, and that’s that’s not a strait we’re going to allow to remain contested or with a lack of flow of commercial goods,” he said.
Key events
When asked whether Iran has placed new mines in the strait of Hormuz since the war started, Hegseth said that the US military has “heard them talk about it”, but they have “no clear evidence” that they’re doing so.
This comes after numerous reports, citing US officials, indicate that Iran is preparing to lay more under-water explosives to further disrupt the key chokepoint.
Hegseth says that Centcom has designated investigating officer for probe into boming of Iranian girls’ school
Asked about the ongoing investigation into the bombing of an Iranian girls’ school, Hegseth said he would not let reporting “force our hand into indicating what happened in a particular situation”. This comes after the New York Times found a preliminary investigation blamed the US for the strikes on the elementary school that killed at least 175 people.
I can report that Centcom has designated an investigating officer to complete a command investigation. The command investigation will take as long as necessary to address all the matters surrounding this incident.
Hegseth added that the appointed investigator is from outside Centcom and is a is a general officer.
Defense officials say US will not allow strait of Hormuz to remain ‘contested’, continue to target Iranian mine-laying ships
Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the US is continuing to destroy the Iranian navy. “This means going after Iran’s mine-laying capability and destroying their ability to attack commercial vessels,” he said.
This comes after Donald Trump said that American forces struck 28 mine-laying vessels this week along the strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth later remained resolute about the US’ intention to keep the vital waterway clear. “We have a plan for every option here. We’re working with our interagency partners, and that’s that’s not a strait we’re going to allow to remain contested or with a lack of flow of commercial goods,” he said.
‘Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know’: Hegseth questions condition of new Iranian supreme leader
Hegseth questioned whether the new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, is actually running the country in the wake of US-Israeli forces killing his father and many members of his family.
The defense secretary said that Khamenei is “wounded and likely disfigured”, and noted that his statement on Thursday was not on camera. “He [Khamanei] called for unity. Apparently killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity,” Hegseth added.
“He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy … Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.”
Hegseth touts that the US is ‘decimating’ Iran’s military
At his Pentagon press conference, Pete Hegseth said that the US is “decimating” the Iranian regime’s military “in a way the world has never seen before”.
Hegseth added: “We said it would not be a fair fight, and it has not been.”
The defense secretary said that Friday would be the “highest volume of strikes” that the US has launched against Tehran.
You can watch the press conference live here:
Jeremy Barr
The question, asked during a 4 March press briefing with Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, and Gen Dan Caine, was a good one: if the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities during an operation last June, “what was the intelligence that suggested that somehow they became a threat once again that required us to get involved with Operation Epic Fury?”
It was asked by Heather Mullins, who works for LindellTV, the television network founded by Mike Lindell, the pillow entrepreneur, Trump cheerleader and 2020 election denier.
On Tuesday, a reporter from the Gateway Pundit, an outlet that “regularly peddles falsehoods and conspiracy theories”, as NPR put it in 2024, asked about reports that the US is unhappy with its chief ally in the operation against Iran, Israel.
“Whether this reporting’s true or not, what’s your message to Americans, those who supported the president and those who aren’t really in favor of this war and who worry that Israel might be taking advantage of the US’s backing?” asked Jordan Conradson.
After the heavy hitters of the Pentagon press corps walked out in October over new restrictions on access and reporting, many worried how the Trump-friendly media who took their place would fill the void – particularly if, say, a war started.
Major fears remain, stoked by questions bordering on sycophancy, but, so far, some longtime skeptics of the pro-Maga press corps say they are doing better than expected at questioning Hegseth and the generals who have been brought out on four occasions to give briefings and take questions from a large group of assembled reporters.
Seven in 10 Americans say Trump’s tariffs caused higher prices
Lauren Aratani
Seven in 10 Americans say Donald Trump’s tariffs have led to them paying higher prices, according to an exclusive new poll for the Guardian.
The Harris Poll survey presents Republicans with a major problem in the battle for the upcoming midterm elections. The majority of all voters (72%) believe Trump’s tariffs have had a negative rather than a positive impact and 67% said tariffs aren’t the right solution for improving the economy.
Yet Trump has made clear he wants to press ahead with more tariffs even after a supreme court ruling curbed many of the levies he introduced last year.
Trump’s signature economic policy gets poor marks across the political spectrum:
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64% of Republicans agreed that Trump’s tariffs had led to higher prices compared with 77% of Democrats and 67% of independents who believed the same.
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60% of Republicans also said that tariffs had had more of a negative impact on consumers than a positive one, compared with 81% of Democrats and 75% of independents.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is set to give another morning media briefing, updating on the US war on Iran, alongside general Dan Caine.
You can follow along at 8am ET via our Middle East live blog, which will have all the news lines here:
Trump threatens major retaliation against Iran after attacks on Gulf states
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump threatened a major retaliation after Iran launched multiple attacks early Friday on Gulf Arab states, including dozens of drones at Saudi Arabia.
It came after Iran’s new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei issued a warning to its neighbours about hosting American bases.
Writing on his Truth Social media platform, the US president said:
Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.
Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.
He added:
They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them.
What a great honor it is to do so!
Meanwhile, four of the six crew members onboard a US military aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed, the US military said as rescue efforts continued for the remaining two.
The KC-135 military refuelling plane crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, in an incident the military said involved another aircraft but was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.
In other developments:
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The US Senate failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month.
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In a surprising twist, a White House event in honor of Women’s History Month ended with a medal being presented to… Donald Trump.
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The US temporarily suspended sanctions on the sale of Russian oil issuing a Treasury Department license to allow the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels through April 11. “Looks like we fought Iran and Russia won,” Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii observed.
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Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen, called for the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “to be fired immediately” over the killing of dozens of seven to 12-year-old Iranian schoolgirls in a missile attack on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
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The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University was identified by authorities as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.
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The FBI said it is investigating the ramming of a car into a Michigan synagogue as “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community”.
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