With Vow to Take Kharg Island, Trump Just Announced a Ground Invasion of Iran

Update: As of Thursday afternoon, Trump is now claiming that he has canceled U.S. strikes on Kharg Island, and that “final points” of a U.S. peace deal have been “approved by all parties involved.” The chaos continues.

Update: Iran has responded to Trump’s deranged Thursday morning declaration of a U.S. invasion of Kharg Island by saying that Iran would deliver a “firm, crushing, painful, and regret-inducing response” on U.S. attackers. Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, called Trump “confused and erratic,” and said Iran was “fully prepared” to defend Kharg Island.

Well, it’s happening. After two months of “ceasefire,” during which time the United States and Iran have rarely actually ceased firing upon one another or Middle Eastern neighbors for more than a few days at a time, President Donald Trump has apparently let his stated boredom with the conflict come out on top. Just a day after he was insane enough to say the words “I love the inflation” while speaking to reporters, Trump has now vowed to send that inflation into the stratosphere with a declaration that the United States will soon embark on the one thing it has steadfastly avoided doing throughout the conflict: A full-on land invasion of Iran, or at least a piece of it.

Thursday morning, Trump declared that the U.S. will “at some point in the not too distant future” be “taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela.” This is something that obviously would not be possible to do without thousands of boots on the ground, and is equal to the President straight up saying “we are invading Iran.” Previous estimates of the U.S. cost of seizing the heavily defended Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf have concluded that the effort will likely result in heavy casualties to the United States attackers. Presumably, that’s what Trump was referring to this morning when he jumped on Fox & Friends and said he doubted “that America has the stomach for it,” in reference to the attack, while clarifying that he would simply be doing it anyway regardless. Watch as the horrified Fox hosts below attempt to interject and get him to clarify or walk it back, while Trump just keeps vowing to do it despite the fact that Americans want no part of it.

Trump: “My preference has always been to take Kharg Island. I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest with it. You’d make a fortune.”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 8:54 AM · Jun 11, 2026

Suffice to say, this feels like a good spot to call an official end to the farce that was the supposed U.S.-Iran ceasefire, and the negotiations that were perpetually two or three days away from completion. How many dozens of times did Trump promise that a peace deal was about to be announced, before he today announces an invasion? It’s a wonder that the fragile “ceasefire” lasted even this long, with Trump’s boredom making him fantasize openly about a return to open war, and Israel trying its hardest on a daily basis to drag the United States back into more active shooting via its constant attacks on Lebanon. A fun thought experiment: If “regime change” indeed happened, as Trump has also repeatedly claimed, does that mean this will be an entirely new war, against a new regime, in the eyes of the administration? Food for thought.

The U.S. and Iran had already been trading fire back and forth this week, thanks to Israel’s provocations and the Iranian attack on a U.S. Apache gunship helicopter that went down near the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the week. Trump bragged to Fox that the U.S. military “dropped $250 million worth of bombs” (a prudent investment) last night, and would be upping that number today. In classic Trump fashion, he coined a great, absurd phrase in the process: “They’re really in submission. They just don’t know it yet.”

At the same time, Trump is also reportedly revisiting his past plans and threats to destroy civilian infrastructure and torture the bystanders of Iran; akin to his infamous “a whole civilization will die tonight” proclamation. Asked by Fox about strikes on infrastructure targets such as bridges and water reservoirs and treatment facilities, Trump made a scintillating observation, that taking out water access might result in some hardship to human beings.

“Yeah, but I’d rather not do it because once you do that, the people suffer,” the President said. “Like, I heard you mentioning water. Water is really a devastating loss for them. I could do that in one minute, but the problem is the people won’t be able to drink water.”

>we will be taking Kharg Island

if the president could stop announcing new missives destroying the world economy while i’m in a work meeting, that would be great

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— Sky Marchini (@sky.skymarchini.net) 9:57 AM · Jun 11, 2026

Truly a brilliant logistical mind we have as the chief executive, here in the United States. As for the long-mulled attack on Kharg Island, meanwhile, Iran has now had months to fortify and add extra defenses to its most key oil post, and is sure as hell not going to be simply surrendering it without a fight. The Iranian military–which Trump recently said was both “destroyed” and “left alone” by the U.S.–has reportedly moved large numbers of surface-to-air guided missile systems to the island, along with laying traps such as anti-personnel and anti-armor mines. There can be no delusions that taking Kharg Island would be free from casualties for U.S. forces. If anything, the operation would have the potential to turn into a disaster, particularly if Iranian forces on the mainland are able to unleash fire upon the island while/after U.S. forces seize it.

It is possible, of course, that this entire threat from Trump is a last-ditch bluff effort, made out of hope that Iran would rather accept U.S. peace terms than engage in a bloody fight for Kharg Island or other parts of the Iranian mainland. Trump may be hoping that by seizing, or merely threatening to seize a key lynchpin in the Iranian oil operation, that the country will suddenly reverse course and sue for peace under favorable terms. That’s possible, sure. What’s also possible: U.S. troops pouring onto a beachhead on Kharg Island, only to be torn apart by incoming fire and exploding mines. That’s what Trump is vowing will most likely happen, as of Thursday morning. And when Trump vows that he’ll be doing something that he himself acknowledges “America doesn’t have the stomach for,” it’s best to assume that thing will indeed happen. If you’re the praying type, this might be the time to seek a little divine intervention, for the sake of American servicemen.