President Donald Trump brushed aside a fresh round of threats from a senior Iranian official over the weekend, responding with characteristic bluntness as tensions between the United States and Iran continue to surge during the second week of an expanding regional conflict.
Speaking during a late-night phone interview Saturday with CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa, Trump dismissed remarks made earlier in the day by Ali Larijani, one of Iran’s most powerful national security figures. Larijani had posted on social media that the American president would eventually “pay the price” for the ongoing military campaign targeting Iranian forces and infrastructure.
Trump appeared unfazed.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about, who he is. I couldn’t care less,” Trump said during the interview, according to video shared by Face the Nation. The president added that Larijani had “already been defeated,” signaling confidence in the current U.S.–Israeli military operations against Iran.
Larijani currently serves as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a powerful position responsible for coordinating Iran’s defense and intelligence strategy. His influence has grown significantly in recent days following the death of Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who Iranian officials say was killed in a Feb. 28 airstrike that helped ignite the current war.
The power vacuum left behind has forced Iran to temporarily reorganize its leadership. According to multiple international reports, the country is now being overseen by an interim governing structure that includes President Masoud Pezeshkian along with other senior figures from Iran’s political and security establishment.
During the interview, Trump doubled down on his claim that U.S. and allied military strikes have severely crippled Iran’s ability to wage war. The president argued that American and Israeli forces have systematically dismantled key components of Tehran’s military infrastructure.
“It’s been incredible, the job we’ve done,” Trump said. “The missiles are blown to smithereens. They’re down to very few. The drones are blown. The factories are being blown up as we speak. The Navy is gone; it’s at the bottom of the sea.”
Statements from U.S. Central Command appear to support at least part of that assessment. According to CENTCOM updates cited by several defense reporters, coalition forces have struck thousands of Iranian-linked military targets since the conflict began. Early operational briefings also indicated that dozens of Iranian naval vessels were damaged or destroyed during the opening wave of strikes in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters.
Trump also framed the military campaign as a decisive blow against Iran’s broader ambitions in the Middle East. The president suggested that pressure from the ongoing strikes has forced Iranian leaders to retreat from their attempts to project power across the region.
Meanwhile, Iran’s political leadership has delivered mixed messages about how it intends to proceed.
In a video statement released Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian apologized to neighboring countries that had been hit by Iranian missile launches during the early days of the conflict. He suggested Tehran would halt strikes against regional states unless those countries directly participated in attacks on Iran.
But only hours later, Pezeshkian appeared to soften that message in a follow-up post on social media. In the statement, he insisted Iran had not targeted friendly neighboring countries at all, arguing instead that the missile attacks were aimed specifically at U.S. military bases and facilities throughout the region.
“We have not attacked our friendly and neighboring countries,” Pezeshkian wrote. “Rather, we have targeted U.S. military bases, facilities, and installations in the region.”
The conflicting explanations highlight the growing uncertainty surrounding Iran’s leadership structure after Khamenei’s death. Analysts have noted that multiple factions inside Tehran’s government and security apparatus appear to be communicating different signals about both the scale of Iranian retaliation and the regime’s willingness to escalate further.
At the same time, Washington and Tehran are engaged in an increasingly intense information battle. Trump and U.S. officials have repeatedly emphasized the scale of destruction inflicted on Iran’s missile stockpiles, drone programs, naval assets, and weapons factories. Iranian leaders, meanwhile, have sought to portray their attacks as limited responses focused strictly on American military installations — a characterization disputed by some regional governments and Western intelligence assessments.
For Trump, the decision to dismiss Larijani’s warning outright fits into a broader messaging strategy aimed at projecting strength and momentum. The president has repeatedly argued that Iran’s leadership is fractured and weakened and that sustained military pressure will eventually force Tehran to accept what he has described as “unconditional surrender.”
Sources: CBS News / Face the Nation interview with Robert Costa (Mar. 8, 2026); U.S. Central Command operational updates; Reuters; Associated Press; Al Jazeera; BBC reporting on Iran leadership transition and regional strikes.
