President Donald Trump delivered a fantastic one-liner when he was asked about the recent airstrikes conducted by Israel against Iran. The core of Iran’s military and political leadership was decimated on Thursday night, taken out by surgical airstrikes by Israeli forces. The world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism might not be able to recover. The breadth of Israel’s wiping out of Iran’s leadership is something to behold.
CNN interviewed Trump about the attacks, where he expounded that Iran had a chance to make a deal. It’s too late now, especially since the people he was dealing with are dead. The president didn’t name names.
🚨 Trump told CNN’s Dana Bash Iran’s hardline negotiators are now dead
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 13, 2025
BASH: “Does that mean Israel got them?"
TRUMP: “Well, they didn't die of COVID.” 🤣
“This is as a result of the attack last night?" asked CNN’s Dana Bash, which led to Trump saying that these guys didn’t die of COVID (via Fox News):
President Donald Trump joked on Friday morning about the fate of Iranian officials in the wake of Israel’s recent airstrike, according to CNN's Dana Bash.
After months of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure early Friday, taking out at least 20 senior Iranian commanders and inflicting a significant blow to Tehran's government. Two of the most prominent officials killed in the strikes were Gen. Hossein Salami, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.
Bash spoke on Friday about her phone call with Trump, where she asked him about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s initial statement about Israel’s strikes, which did not explicitly say that the U.S. supported them.
We, of course, support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it," Trump said, according to Bash. "It was a very successful attack. Iran should have listened to me when I said - you know, I gave them, I don‘t know if you know, but I gave them a 60-day warning. And today is day 61."
"They should now come to the table to make a deal before it's too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead," he added, though he wouldn't give specific names, only that the "hardliners" were dead.
"This is as a result of the attack last night?" Bash asked him.
"Yeah. They didn’t die of the flu. They didn’t die of COVID," Bash described him saying "quite sarcastically."
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It’s just a fantastic line. While Israel is bracing itself as it’s subjected to ballistic missile attacks by Iran, the chance of an all-out war isn’t a foregone conclusion. The Israeli airstrikes took out everyone who could plan a retaliatory strike or operation along those lines. It’s by no means over. Tehran will think of something else, but a Yom Kippur War-style conflict isn’t likely since no one left alive in Iran could lead it.
Also, Israel isn’t done either. We’ll keep you posted.
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