The New York Times told its readers Iran was winning.
Trump went on Hugh Hewitt Monday morning and said the quiet part out loud: "They have no military."
The Times has no answer for that – so Trump told them what comes next.
What Trump Said on Hewitt
He didn't dance around it.
Iran has no Navy.
Iran has no Air Force.
Iran has no military.
Their inflation just hit 301% – up from 5% before the war began.
Trump said the Times looked at all of that and told their readers Iran was "in better shape now than they were four months ago before I started."
That's not a difference of opinion.
https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2076774625116119296?s=20
That's a newspaper actively working against the country it operates in.
Trump said it plainly: "The fake news wants us to lose."
“It’s not even, I mean, the New York Times, they actually said a week ago, I don’t, I can’t imagine they’d say it now, but think of it,” he said. “They said oh, they’re in better shape now than they were four months ago before I started.”
And then he made the promise.
"We're going to hit them very hard tonight, and we're going to hit them hard tomorrow, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it," he said.
CENTCOM confirmed it hours later – the third consecutive night of strikes against Iran, direct from the Commander in Chief.
Pickaxe Mountain Is on the List
Iran has one card left, and Trump just told them he's watching it.
Pickaxe Mountain – a fortified underground tunnel complex sitting near the wreckage of Natanz – is on the target list.
"Pickaxe is a possible target for a nice big fat shot right into the front door," Trump said.
Here's why that matters.
IAEA inspectors have never been allowed inside Pickaxe Mountain – not once.
U.S. surveillance picked up vehicle activity near the western tunnel entrances as recently as late June – possible construction, possible fortification.
Iran has been hiding down there because every time they try to restart their nuclear program, America finds it.
https://twitter.com/TabzLIVE/status/2076772577133945142?s=20
Trump said it himself: "Every time we hear about it, we blow it up."
“These people are, these people are crazy,” Trump said. “We had a deal where we won everything, and they basically break the deals, you know, they make deals, and to them, deals are made to be broken,” he continued. “They are extremely unreliable people, and frankly, if they ever had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it within one day.”
But Trump said they've learned to stay quiet.
However, he added that it won't save them.
The Pattern the Times Has Run Since Vietnam
This is not a new play.
The American press has been running the same script since Vietnam – frame enemy resilience as American failure, frame American victories as illusions, and keep the pressure on until the public breaks.
During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the Pentagon installed press pools specifically to stop journalists from turning battlefield reporting into something that served Saddam instead of America.
History keeps handing them the same result, and they keep running it.
https://twitter.com/factpostnews/status/2076777149063729579?s=20
Iran's inflation is at 301%.
Three nuclear sites are rubble.
The Iranian Navy and Air Force are gone.
And the paper of record in New York City told its readers the mullahs were doing fine.
The Times hasn't responded.
They can't.
Trump didn't let it slide.
Neither should you.
Sources:
- CJ Womack, "Donald Trump accuses 'fake news' of wanting US to lose Iran war, blasts NYT reporting," Fox News, July 13, 2026.
- "President Donald Trump Returns to the Hugh Hewitt Show," HughHewitt.com, July 14, 2026.
- "US resumes strikes while Iran says it struck two tankers in Strait of Hormuz," Newsweek, July 13, 2026.
- Howard Kurtz, "Trump blasts media as 'corrupt' and 'fake' over Iran war coverage," Fox News, March 17, 2026.
- "Iran's army, navy and air force largely destroyed by US, Trump says," Iran International, March 6, 2026.