Trump Threatens Iran 'Very Hard' Over Flydubai Attack — SkimNews
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- Trump said Iran was "likely" behind a flydubai co-pilot's alleged assault on the captain of a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight, vowing Iran would be "hit very hard" if confirmed; passengers reportedly saved the plane from crashing before Israel's PM cited "Islamist radical indoctrination."
- Trump told Time it was "possible" he'd resume bombing Iran after the Nov 3 midterm elections, and told aides he expected strikes to restart by late November, per the Wall Street Journal.
- The US is set to send a third aircraft carrier — the USS Theodore Roosevelt — and up to 10,000 additional service members to the Middle East by the end of November.
- Trump reiterated his UN "annihilate" Iran threat, telling Time: "By annihilating Iran, we've created peace in the world" — a sharp reversal of his earlier self-description as "president of peace."
- Iran continues to control the strategic Strait of Hormuz more than seven months after initial US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.
- Republicans fear losing Congress in the Nov 3 midterms, with Trump's approval at near-record lows over the Iran war and a cost-of-living surge driven by high oil prices.
Why it matters: Trump is openly conditioning renewed bombing on a political calendar — "possible" post-midterm strikes and a late-November resumption timeline per the WSJ — while deploying a third carrier and 10,000 more troops, turning a single co-pilot incident into a potential escalation trigger on a tight electoral deadline with Republican control of Congress at stake.
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