Vance: Trump's video on 'destroying' Kharg Island is a message to Iran

US Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that President Donald Trump’s post about the “destruction” of Iran’s Kharg Island likely represented a message to Tehran, rather than an announcement of a US military strike on the island.

Vance clarified that Trump sometimes changes his tone on social media, noting that the president does not announce military operations via those platforms, and that he believed the post was intended as a message to the Iranians.

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Trump had posted two consecutive clips on his “Truth Social” platform showing oil facilities engulfed in explosions and fires. He attached a comment to the first clip stating that Kharg Island “is being destroyed,” while the second clip was posted about a minute later without any comment or location specification.

Fact-checking revealed that the clip Trump explicitly linked to Kharg Island was likely AI-generated, whereas Trump did not explicitly attribute the second clip to the island.

A US official confirmed that US forces did not target Kharg Island during the overnight strikes.

Confirmed US strikes had targeted two Iranian launch platforms on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz.