President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had initially been a little bit “upset” when he learned the United States military had destroyed high quality Iranian ships instead of capturing and repurposing them.
Trump made the comments while speaking at the Republican Members Conference, saying that he’d wondered at first why it wouldn’t have made more sense to keep the ships for American use rather than sink them.
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🚨 JUST IN: President Trump said he was a little “upset” that our military SUNK 46 Iranian ships rather than CAPTURING them, because they were high quality ships 🤣
“I said, ‘what quality of ship?’
‘Excellent, sir. Top of the line!’
I said ‘why didn’t we just capture the ship?… pic.twitter.com/17ftu4S4Ek
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 9, 2026
“Their missile capability is being utterly demolished. The navy is gone, all lying at the bottom of the ocean — 46 ships, can you believe it? In fact, I got a little upset with our people.”
Trump said that he’d posed the question to military leadership, asking whether the ships would even have been worth keeping: “I said, ‘What quality of ship?’”
“Excellent, sir. Top of the line!” was the reply.
“I said, ‘Why didn’t we just capture the ship? We could’ve used it! Why did we sink them?!’” Trump continued, adding, “He said, ‘It’s more fun to sink them.'”
Everyone laughed then, as he continued.
“They like sinking them better,” he repeated. “They say it’s safer to sink them. I guess it’s probably true!”
”But think of it, we knocked out 46 [ships] and actually it took three and a half days,” the president said. “Their terrorist leaders are gone, or counting down the minutes until they will be gone.”
Trump also said on Monday that he believed the war was more or less finished — or at the very least, was far ahead of his original four-to-six week timeline.
“Think of it, they had leaders and they’re gone, and they had new leaders and they’re gone,” Trump added. “And now nobody has any idea who the people are that are going to be the head of the country.”
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