Beating them up Trump declares US hitting Iran very hard

Donald Trump says the attacks on Iran will continue until he says that it's enough as America reintroduces the blockade on Iranian ports. Let's go to Washington correspondent Jonathan Kersley now. Jono, the President said he was looking to charge a 20% fee to operate that blockade, but a pretty good backflip on that one. Big backflip in 24 hours. He's also spoken with Fox News' Trey Yingst in an interview and not entirely ruling out the idea of ground troops. In his words, if he deemed a ground campaign appropriate, then he could well approve it. That's also a marked shift from a president who has long said he doesn't really want to have to go down that route. What we've got now is the United States is operating a naval blockade of Iranian ports, carrying out yet more strikes across Iran for yet another day, targeting areas like Bandar Abbas. There have been anti-drone aircraft, anti-missile aircraft from Iran used around the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is Iran's major nuclear power plant up to the north. But on that idea of the 20% levy that you mentioned, Laura, yes, President Trump walking back from that saying, look, he had announced it yesterday. He'd walked back from it today. He said he didn't like the idea of having to put it in place. And he'd spoken with regional leaders about this very issue and they insisted they would rather invest in America than have ships potentially pay millions and millions of dollars. We've also heard from Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command over the course of the last 15 minutes or so. He has said that there have been seven commercial ships targeted by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz over the last seven days and that there are about a dozen crew people who are killed, missing or injured as a result of the attacks that Iran has been carried out. So what the United States is trying to do now is not just ramp up the military pressure, but the economic pressure, too, by putting in this blockade once more. Interestingly, President Trump is saying that when it comes to the attacks, well, he will call time when he thinks enough is enough. As I said, not entirely ruling out a ground campaign, also suggesting there will be much more to come. This is some of what he had to say to Fox News' Trey Yingst. We're beating them up really badly. They have to be beat up. We're hitting them very, very hard. We're hitting every single thing that they have along the shore, along the waterfront. If you look at the Strait of Hormuz, we're finding it hard to find where they have anything. We have to stop it. We have to keep it open. I was going to charge a fee, but instead they'd rather spend a lot of money in the United States, which frankly is better because I don't like the idea of a fee. At the same time, President Trump has told Fox News, our affiliates here in the United States, that US officials spoke with Iran today, US time, that he's urging them to make a deal. He has said previously that they are desperate to make a deal, but the actions we're seeing from both sides over the course of the last six or seven days or so would suggest something entirely otherwise. Iran's deputy foreign minister is saying that the action the United States is taking today with both the military action and the naval blockade is a mistake. President Trump, as we mentioned, saying that there will be more to come. He's talking about the idea of bridges, of infrastructure. He says, though, he will leave energy to last. Here's what he had to say on some of that. Ultimately, we'll hit energy targets, yeah. But we're going to hit them very hard tonight. We're going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We're going to hit them very hard the night after. And then next week, it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're So once again, it is an ominous message from President Trump, who is suggesting yet more military pressure, yet more military exertion. He is desperate to try and force Iran into a position where they will buckle to what he wants. But that so far has proved difficult. A ramped up military campaign. Well, that could be another story altogether. Yes, it will. Thanks so much, Shano.