STORY: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (March 11) that Washington was in "very good shape" in its war on Iran and the U.S. was "going to look very strongly at the straits."

The war has rattled global markets. Raising the stakes for the global economy, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has said it would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless the U.S. and Israeli attacks cease.

"We're just riding free range over that country, and now we're going to look very strongly at the straits. The straits are in great shape," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

In comments to CBS News earlier this week about the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said he was "thinking about taking it over."

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: NIGHT SHOTS OF U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ARRIVING AT JOINT BASE ANDREWS/ TRUMP SPEAKING TO MEDIA/

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE STORY

SHOWS: JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (MARCH 11, 2026)(U.S. NETWORK POOL – No use USA)

1. AIR FORCE ONE CARRYING U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP TAXIING ON RUNWAY

2. TRUMP STEPPING OUT OF AIRCRAFT AND WALKING DOWN STAIRS

3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: (SHOT BEGINS ON TRUMP APPROACHING MEDIA)

“Thank you very much. I think it was a great trip and we have very good news on the war front. Namely, they are absolutely being destroyed. Iran is being absolutely decimated. That's all I can say.”

4. TRUMP SPEAKING TO MEDIA

5. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING: “President Trump, when you heard about this bulletin that some law enforcement put out about a possible Iran revenge plot in California, where there would be some kind of a boat off-shore launching drones towards…”

TRUMP: “Yes, that’s being investigated, but you have a lot of things happening and all we can do is take them as they come. And the war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen. And this is other countries telling me too, big countries, powerful countries. They said they've never seen anything like it. And they also agree with what I'm doing. They say it's an evil country and it's been for 47 years that way.”

6. TRUMP SPEAKING TO MEDIA

7. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING: “And if they try to hit us back. Have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the U.S. right now?”

TRUMP: “I have been and a lot of people came in through (Former U.S. President Joe) Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are. We've got our eye on all of them. I think. They came in through the open border policies of Sleepy Joe Biden, one of the worst, the worst president in the history of our country. And we've got our eyes on all of them. But the war itself is being prosecuted at a level that nobody has seen before. I think it's pretty, it's pretty amazing to watch.”

8. TRUMP SPEAKING TO MEDIA

9. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING: “Is there a timeline on when you're planning to tap the Strategic Petroleum reserve, a timeline of when that could happen, to be doing.”

TRUMP: “We are going to do it very quickly. And then we'll fill it up. We'll fill up our reserves. You know, if you remember, I filled them up and then I had a deal to go at the highest level, a level that's never been. And Schumer and the Democrats for $25. And it was turned down. You remember that, Peter, almost before your time, but not quite. But it was, we had a deal at $25, think of that, $25 a barrel. And the Democrats turned it down. We were going to fill, we're going to tap it out like it's never been. But they turned that down and now it's a lot higher.”

10. TRUMP SPEAKING TO MEDIA

11. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

12. REPORTER ASKING: “Are you considering having the US Treasury Department buy oil futures as a means to keep the oil prices down?”

TRUMP: “Oh, well, we're going to be in very good shape. You see what's happening. They are pretty much at the end of the line. Doesn’t mean we're going to end it immediately. But they are. They've got no navy. They've got no Air Force. They've got no anti air traffic, anything. They have no systems of control. We're just riding free range over that country. And now we're going to look very strongly at the straits.The straits are in great shape. We've knocked out all of their boats and they have some missiles, but not very many. I think we're in very good, we're in very good shape. The main thing is we have to win this. Win it quickly, but win it. And there are many people, I'm just watching some of the news. Most people say it's already been won. It's just a question of when, when do we stop? We don't want to let it regrow. And ideally, we'd like to see somebody in there that knows what they're doing. And in other words, you could build a country. Now, one of the things, we can hit sections of Tehran and other places but if you do it, it'll be almost impossible for them to rebuild their country. And we don't want that. But we can hit electric, we could take apart their electric capacity within one hour and it would take them 25 years to rebuild it. So ideally, we're not going to be doing that. Thank you very much, everybody.” / TRUMP LEAVING

13. TRUMP SITTING IN VEHICLE AS IT DRIVES AWAY

14. MOTORCADE CARRYING TRUMP LEAVING