Trump says Americans may not back capturing Iran’s Kharg Island

By Lazar Berman

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11 June 2026, 4:16 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

This handout image taken by the European Space Agency, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, shows a view of Iran's Kharg Island, which hosts the country's main crude export terminal and is responsible for the overwhelming majority of its oil shipments to the world, about 30 kilometers south of the mainland in the north of the Gulf, on March 7, 2026. (European Space Agency/AFP)

After threatening to take key Iranian energy installations, including Kharg Island, US President Donald Trump says that he is not convinced that Americans are willing to pay the price of taking the strategic site.

“We are talking to them, and all, but you know, look, my preference has always been — take Kharg Island,” he tells the “Fox and Friends” morning show.

“I don’t know that America has the stomach for it,” he acknowledges. Analysts say capturing the island would require putting thousands of ground troops in harm’s way.

“I think they’d like to see us come home,” Trump says of the American public.

Iran is “dying to make a deal” and “is being decimated,” the president says

“They’re really in submission,” he says. “They just don’t know it yet.”