LIVE: Secretary of War Participates in Troop Engagement Event in Florida

Good afternoon. I'm honored to stand right here today alongside one of America's finest, Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander of U.S. Central Command. We just had a chance to spend a couple of hours together, better part of two hours, going through the entirety of this operation, Operation Epic Fury. Admiral, I want to thank you for everything you do and your incredible leadership, your dynamic thinking, the way you're attacking this problem set on every level. In just days of Operation Epic Fury, you and your team have delivered nothing short of devastating, precise strikes, taking out the better part of Iran's Navy, making it combat ineffective, neutralizing missile sites and launchers, and establishing total dominance over the skies we fly over and seas we fly over. Our forces are executing with unmatched skill, and the mission is advancing decisively. This is the kind of no-nonsense, results-driven warfighting that America demands, and you're delivering it in spades. You are the man for this moment. Admiral Cooper, on behalf of the President, the Department of War, and every American watching, I want to thank you for the outstanding job you and CENTCOM are doing. Keep pressing the fight, and we are with you all the way. A few thoughts before I hand it over to the Admiral for an update. Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC and Iran. You see, there's no shortage of American will here. We remember and honor our fallen, those six that we will soon welcome at Dover, who gave everything for their country in this mission. We remember them. But we remember them by rededicating ourselves even more fervently to this mission. Our commitment to our mission objectives only increases as our advantages continue to increase. We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. Again, our munition status only increases as our advantage increases. Our capabilities, we have only just begun to fight and fight decisively. Having a chance to hear from Admiral Cooper, if you think you've seen something, just wait. The amount of combat power that's still flowing, that's still coming, that we'll be able to project over Iran is a multiples of what it currently is right now when you add up our capabilities and those of the Israeli Defense Forces. And we have no shortage of authorities. The Admiral knows we have clear objectives with maximum authorities on the battlefield. The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more. Our authorities, his authorities, CENTCOM's authorities through the President and myself are maxed out. Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still, as are those of our Israeli partners. Our munitions are full up and our will is iron clad, which means our timeline is ours and ours alone to control. As long as it takes to ensure the United States of America achieves these objectives, and as we flow more forces, and as we flow more capabilities, and as our munitions, as we're flying over the top, have even more devastating effects, we set the tempo, we set the timeline, led by the commander on the ground. Our ear is to the ground to listen to Admiral Cooper, what he needs and what he needs, he will get. We are built for this fight and we are in it to win it. And we have the right commander in the lead. So I'll now hand it over to Admiral Brad Cooper to give you an update right here from CENTCOM. Admiral. Mr. Secretary, first, thank you very much and good afternoon and welcome to U.S. Central Command Headquarters, America's war fighting headquarters. It's great to be here alongside the Secretary and representing the more than 50,000 men and women in uniform currently executing Operation Epic Fury. So Mr. Secretary, first, thank you very much for your leadership and support and the very clear vision and objectives that you've given us to allow us to use overwhelming force against the Iranian terrorist regime. And thanks to all of you for attending today and welcome to Tampa. We are now starting our sixth day of a historic mission to eliminate Iran's ability to threaten Americans. We are, if I could channel my inner Navy officer, we are at full speed ahead in executing orders given by leadership in Washington. The President and Secretary Hicks have been crystal clear in their expectations and we are at a high level of execution. As described by the Secretary and earlier this week by me, U.S. combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines. Our air dominance allows us to hit Iran's center of gravity with overwhelming power and reach. A couple of examples. In just the last 72 hours, America's bomber force has struck nearly 200 targets deep inside of Iran, including around Tehran. And in just the last hour, U.S. B-2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers. Notably, we have also struck Iran's equivalent of Space Command, which degrades their ability to threaten Americans. Then if I just look back over the last 24 hours of the operation compared to where we were at start, ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90 percent since day one. Drone attacks have decreased by 83 percent since day one. Having said this, we remain vigilant. Our strikes against the Iranian Navy have intensified. You may have heard the President say just a little while ago that we have suffered a score of 24 ships. That was true at the moment. We're now up over 30 ships. And in just the last few hours, we hit an Iranian drone carrier ship, roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. And as we speak, it's on fire. The President gave us another task, to raise or level Iran's ballistic missile industrial base. So we're not just hitting what they have, we're destroying their ability to rebuild. And so as we transition to the next phase of this operation, we will systemically dismantle Iran's missile production capability for the future, and that's absolutely in progress. This is going to take some time, but our forces are well-supplied, as the Secretary said, and we are absolutely ready to prosecute this mission decisively. Our combined joint forces have relentlessly destroyed Iran's air defenses over the past few days, and they've continued hunting for more systems to kill. Our air defenders are operating at the very top of their game. I couldn't be prouder. Shoulder to shoulder with our partners in the region, in many cases, providing the most integrated air defense network in Middle East history. We are fighting to win. Through combined U.S. and Israeli combat power, we will continue decimating Iran's ability to project power outside its borders. And if I can just conclude by saying a strong salute to the brave men and women who are out on the pointy edge of this, really doing exceptional work. I just couldn't be prouder, and I know the American people And with that, we'll take a few questions. Yeah, right here. We're very familiar with Iran's capabilities, and as you might imagine, we planned to work from the outset, and I feel good about what the plan was. Like any good organization, we adjust as necessary to meet the environment, and we made those appropriate adjustments. As CENTCOM pointed out, those reports of an F-15 being shot down are false. As you can imagine, Iran is doing everything it can to peddle in lies, deception, and inflation of numbers and reality, mostly to propagandize to their own people, right? They've shut down the internet. They're hoping they can convince their own population that they're having success. One thing one of their leaders said recently is that 500 Americans have been killed, they claim. These are lies. The lies will continue. CENTCOM will continue to debunk those lies, and as often is the case in conflict, first reports are often wrong. As it pertains to nuclear material and things like that, one of the objectives the president has always said is that Iran will not have a nuclear bomb, nuclear capabilities, but we would never disclose what we will or will not do inside operational plans. So Admiral Cooper's got a plan. We're working that plan, and targets will be struck or not struck according to what we want to achieve. Would you like to have a say in who's the next leader of Iran? Is this an expansion of your military objective, if you view it that way? Well, there's no expansion. Ultimately, I think the president's having a heck of a say in who runs Iran, given the ongoing operation we have. So there's no expansion in our objectives. We know exactly what we're trying to achieve. I think today's a great example of what this War Department is capable of doing. I was just in another part of Florida today, where we announced America's counter-cartel conference. 18 countries coming together from Central, South America, and the Caribbean, coming together to fight cartels. That is something that is ongoing. We're focused there. We're focused in the Indo-Pacific. We can mass combat power in CENTCOM. EUCOM is able to support that as well. So we know we're laser focused on our hemisphere and our homeland. That's why we locked down the border. That's we're working with partners to take on cartels. That's why we're sinking drug boats. That's why we're on the offense there. But the beautiful things about combatant commands is that Brad Cooper's laser focused on Central Command, just like Frank Donovan is laser focused on Southern Command. We can do both. That's what a global power can do. Ultimately, this issue of Iran's nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it is something President Trump has said for a long time needs to be dealt with. After 47 years, he's doing something that no other president was willing to do. We're doing it overwhelmingly, and we're doing it decisively, while also, in other parts of the globe, having the desired effect. Take, for example, what we displayed yesterday, the Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean sunk by Indo-PACOM, another combatant command who coordinated with us in order to make that happen. America's reach is global. Our focus here, though—these missions are narrow, they're scoped, and Admiral Cooper is well on his way to ensuring that we reach those objectives. Sure. I'm not familiar with the particular offer, but the interceptors in general, we've had a number of new capabilities being fielded. Obviously, I'm not going to talk about it from the operational perspective of what those are, but I think you have seen over a period of time us kind of get on the other side of this cost curve on drones in general. I just walked back a couple of years. You remember, we used to always hear, we're shooting down a $50,000 drone with a $2 million missile. These days, we're spending a lot of time shooting down $100,000 drones with $10,000 weapons. So that's one aspect of it. Lucas, indispensable. As many of you know, and if you don't know, this was an original Iranian drone design. We captured it, pulled the guts out, sent it back to America, put a little Made America on it, brought it back here, and we're shooting at the Iranians. Good targets. Good targets. That's what happened. How are you going to protect and support the protesters? And Admiral, I have one question for you. How are you going to minimize the civilian harms? We have a lot of evidence that the Basij units, IRGC commanders, they are now gathering in schools, in hospitals, in purely residential areas because their headquarters are guarded. They are ruined, so how are you going to protect the civilians while you're attacking the IRGC people? I would just say on the protests, obviously, the Iranian people showed a lot of courage in those protests. The Iranian regime was revealed for what it is and the way they reacted to that. The world saw that. No one's done more than President Trump to reopen the opportunity for those who want to free Iran to do so. Ultimately, it's common sense, as he said up front. Don't go out and protest while bombs are dropping inside Tehran and elsewhere. So there will come a moment where he determines or they determine that it's the time to seize that advantage. But there's a lot of things we're doing and the Israeli military is doing, targeting those individuals who are targeting those who protest. The more you do that, and you erode their will and you erode their capabilities, the more you create an opportunity for people to boldly stand up. I would just reinforce the point we're targeting the people. We're targeting the headquarters and the people who are targeting the protesters, first and foremost. I'd also just double down on the President's comments that he previously made to the people. Stay in your homes, keep things calm, stay out of the way. There's a lot of U.S. and Israeli capacity coming over. We're hitting a lot of targets. The best thing for right now is just to lay low. Right here. I think it's safe to say there's no plan for a wave of new Middle Eastern refugees to the United States of America. I think as the President has pointed out for a long time, there are a lot of countries in the region who would be capable of providing that kind of support if need be. But that's certainly not something we're planning on. I know Semper Gambi is always a truism in the military. Did the British decision to refuse Gabriel Garcia have any impact on the mission itself? Were you able to just completely go with the mission without any worries? Well, as the President stated, it was unfortunate that the Brits didn't from day one say, hey, go ahead and have access. But we got there. We got there. That's now part of the way that we're operationalizing bomber runs. When we say more to come, it's more fighter squadrons, it's more capabilities, it's more defensive capabilities, and it's more bomber pulses more frequently. The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically. Part of it is that we're going to have even more basing. It's not just the UK. We've had other friends step up, and we're grateful for that. Maybe one more right here. I'm sure there are plans to speak to that. But that does allow me to kind of address this idea that the war might be expanding, or there's chaos, and nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, what Iran is doing by targeting allied countries that would otherwise want to stay out of this, they've actually pulled them into the American orbit. Now you've got UAE and Qatar and Bahrain and Saudi and Kuwait and others saying, hey, we're with you. We'll shoot with you. We'll fly with you. We'll defend with you. We'll allow you more basing. A lot of which we can't talk about and won't talk about, but it's actually firming up the unity of the resistance in order to focus exactly where we need to. So this idea that it's expanding or going, no, it's actually simplifying in a number of ways exactly what we need to achieve and how we'll achieve it. I don't know if you want to add to that. I won't get ahead of policy in terms of what we might do. What I will point out is this is now the 12th country that Iran has attacked. 12 countries, we'll go right back to Secretary's point. Those 12 countries are not too happy, and I look forward to working with all the partners who will be joining us. And I would just close by saying, well, I think Kristi Noem did an excellent job over there securing our border and keeping us focused on threats and the president making a change. We all serve at the pleasure of the president. I'm sure Mark Wayne Mullen will do a fantastic job. He's been a friend of mine for a long time, but Kristi did a great job setting herself for success. So I don't have any concerns about whether or not the homeland will be covered down on. And I'll just end by saying I wish every American could get a chance to see what we see. I had a chance to go into the control room, into the tactical operations center, go see these young men and women that are doing this, the dedication that they show at every level, the way they've refined their craft. I was talking to a young colonel who's iterating on how we target and how we find and fix different aspects of what Iranians are trying to do. They don't know what they're up against. And if they think they've got it solved for, they're wrong. And ultimately, the combination of our ingenuity, the skill, the professionalism, the discipline, and then the sheer weight of the capabilities of the US military, what you're going to see may look routine. It may start to be like, oh, another boat. Oh, another launcher. Oh, another drone facility. What it takes to do this with the precision that we do is world-class. No one else can do it. And it's world-class Americans, like the ones I saw here, like the ones that are coming home that we're going to greet home, that are the engine of what makes our country great. And so I'm so grateful for folks like those here at CENTCOM, at Central Command, who are under your command. Thank you for your decisive leadership. And all I'll say to you is what I say to them, keep going. Because the President and myself, we have your back. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it. Thanks very much. Thank you all.