President Donald Trump, speaking with CNBC’s Joe Kernen from the Oval Office on Thursday, July 2, 2026, made a series of striking claims about the condition of Iran’s military infrastructure, asserting that the United States has now destroyed Iran’s radar systems three separate times and that a covert U.S. Navy operation quietly escorted dozens of oil tankers out of the Persian Gulf through darkened shipping lanes — all while Iran remained blind to the movements.
The interview, which aired on CNBC’s Business Day programming on the eve of the nation’s 250th Independence Day celebration, covered a wide range of topics. But among the most operationally significant disclosures came when Trump turned to the subject of the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing U.S. military campaign against Iran. What emerged was a picture of sustained, multi-front pressure — diplomatic, economic, and military — aimed at bringing Tehran to the negotiating table without triggering a global oil price catastrophe.
“We blew up Iran’s radar, they had no radar, they still don’t,” Trump told Kernen. “We blew it up again the other night. They had a nice new radar, they were all set to go, and we blew it up last week. They have to start all over again for a third time.”
A Wall of Steel — and Ships Running Dark
Trump opened his account of the conflict by describing the U.S. naval posture around Iran as something more formidable than a traditional blockade. “I did a blockade that was essentially not a blockade, it was a wall of steel,” he said, crediting what he called the greatest navy in the world for ensuring not a single ship reached Iran’s ports through that cordon.
Beyond the blockade, Trump described what amounted to a covert maritime operation that has not previously been detailed in public. Over roughly a month and a half, the president said, U.S. Navy vessels escorted commercial oil tankers out of the Gulf by routing them through the southern approach — the point farthest from Iranian weapons positions — traveling at night with no lights and total electronic silence.
“Every night, we were taking ships out through the South, which is the furthest point from where they have their little weapons, and they were going along the coast with no lights for a month and a half,” Trump said. “We had one night where we took 22 ships out. That’s a lot of oil. Those are big ships, some of them are really big ships.” He added: “The lights were off, everything was off, everything was silent.”
CENTCOM Confirms Latest Radar Strike
The radar strike Trump described is almost certainly the one confirmed by U.S. Central Command on June 27, 2026 — five days before the CNBC interview aired. CENTCOM stated that U.S. military aircraft targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities on June 27 in direct response to continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.
That operation itself was the second in as many days. U.S. Central Command said earlier that its warplanes had struck missile and drone storage locations along Iran’s coast as well as coastal radar installations on June 26, following Iran’s drone attack on the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely on June 25.
According to CENTCOM, Iran was given the opportunity to honor a ceasefire agreement after those initial strikes but chose not to, launching a one-way attack drone that struck the Panama-flagged tanker M/T Kiku at 4:30 a.m. ET — a vessel that was transiting near the Strait of Hormuz carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil. It was that attack that triggered the second, larger wave of strikes on June 27.
President Trump himself confirmed the strikes publicly, writing on Truth Social that United States aircraft had hit Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites for violating the ceasefire agreement “AGAIN,” adding that there may come a point when the U.S. is “no longer able to be reasonable” and would be forced to “militarily complete the job.”
The Oil Price Factor
Trump was candid about the economic math driving his decisions in the Strait. He said he was closely monitoring what a prolonged closure would mean for global crude prices, pointing to forecasts he had heard that predicted oil could hit $350 a barrel under a worst-case scenario — a level he said was synonymous with economic depression.
“Oil will be $350 a barrel, and there’ll be a depression,” Trump recounted hearing from analysts. “Because at 350 there’s a depression. It’s automatic, it goes with it.”
The Strait of Hormuz is 34 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, forming a seaway between Iran and Oman whose two unidirectional sea lanes facilitate transit of around 20 million barrels of oil per day, representing roughly 20 percent of global seaborne oil trade. Trump put the figure at roughly 20 to 21 percent and made clear he viewed any prolonged disruption to that flow as incompatible with a healthy global economy — and with his own legacy.
“I always said I don’t want to be a president with a depression on his resume,” Trump said. “I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover.” He drew a sharp historical parallel, arguing that Hoover had led the world into the Great Depression by raising interest rates and taxes simultaneously — a mistake Trump said he was determined never to repeat.
Iran’s Military, as Trump Describes It
Throughout the interview, Trump offered a sweeping assessment of Iran’s degraded military capacity, though the claims tracked closely with what the administration and CENTCOM have asserted publicly over several months. He said Iran has no navy, no air force, no effective radar, and has seen its senior leadership killed through multiple rounds of strikes — with the United States now, in his telling, interacting with a third successive generation of Iranian leaders.
Trump took specific issue with a recent New York Times report that he said characterized Iran as being in a stronger position today than it was four months ago, before U.S. military operations began. “I said, wait a minute, their military is gone,” he said. “Their inflation is up to 300% from 5%. Their leaders are gone. Their second row of leaders are gone. Some of their third row of leaders are gone. Their generals are mostly wiped out.”
The claim that Iran’s radar has been destroyed three times and is being rebuilt from scratch — if accurate — would represent a sustained degradation of one of the most important components of modern air defense. CENTCOM previously stated that U.S. aircraft struck coastal radar sites in response to what it called “unwarranted aggression against commercial shipping by Iranian forces” that “clearly violated the ceasefire.”
Negotiations Ongoing
Despite the relentless military pressure Trump described, he maintained that diplomacy remains the goal. He said Iran had agreed to “just about everything” the U.S. needs, and he expressed a desire to reach a deal that would prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons — which he repeatedly called the central objective of the entire campaign.
A Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran was signed on June 17, 2026, framed as a precursor to further negotiations, including over traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — though both sides have accused the other of violating the deal in the days that followed.
Trump on Thursday gave no indication the military pressure was letting up, describing a pattern of responding to each Iranian provocation with immediate strikes — three nights in one week, two nights the week before, he said. But he framed the conflict in terms of a goal that remains defined and limited: denuclearization of Iran, not occupation, not indefinite war.
“I’ve been there for four months,” he said. “And what have I done? I’ve defeated them militarily.”