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Home / US-Israel-Iran / A downed U.S. helicopter show Trump’s war has only emboldened Iran
US‑Israel‑Iran, Iran, Middle East

June 9, 2026

A downed U.S. helicopter show Trump’s war has only emboldened Iran

By Daniel DePetris

Less than two weeks into the war against Iran, President Donald Trump was already throwing a victory parade.

“You never like to say too ⁠early you won,” Trump told supporters on March 11. “We won. In ​the first hour it was over.”

Two days later, he was at it again, writing Iran was “totally defeated” and was living in such a desperate existence that its leadership was begging for a deal.

Yet this past weekend, Iran launched new missile salvos at Israel, which replied in kind. And on Tuesday, Trump said in a social media post that Iran had downed a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. The pilots were unharmed, but Trump said “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Read at MSNBC

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