‘No air defences’: Trump and Hegseth touted US dominance in Iran before shooting down plane
As the United States has waged war over the past five weeks, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly said that Iran’s capabilities have been destroyed — including its anti-aircraft defenses, which were destroyed by American forces.
That assertion appeared to be called into question on Friday when, according to several US officials, Iran appeared to have shot down a US F-15E fighter jet over its territory.
A US official said that one crew member had been rescued. The condition of the other crew member is not known, and a search and rescue operation is underway, according to officials.
Trump was briefed on the incident, according to the White House. The Pentagon did not comment.
Two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search and rescue of the F-15E crew also came under incoming fire and an A-10 was hit in a separate incident and crashed in a neighboring allied nation, another official said. The pilot was rescued in this case.
On Wednesday, in his first address to the American people since the start of the war, Trump praised the capability of the US military and threatened to attack Iranian power plants if they failed to reach an agreement to end the conflict.
President Donald Trump walks to the podium to address the nation about the Iran war at the White House in Washington, April 1, 2026.
Alex Brandon/Pool/EPA/Shutterstock
“We can hit it and it will go away, and there’s nothing they can do about it,” Trump said from the White House’s cross room. “They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent destroyed.” “We are unstoppable as a military force.”
In that speech, the president claimed that Iran’s air force was “in ruins” and that its “capacity to launch missiles and drones has been greatly reduced.”
“Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear, devastating, and widespread losses in a matter of weeks,” Trump said.
This is not the first time during the conflict that the president has described the operation as a continuing success that enabled the United States to control Iranian airspace.
The president addressed an investor conference in Miami on Monday It once again painted Iran as a diminished opponent on the battlefield unable to protect its skies.
President Donald Trump addresses the nation about the Iran war at the White House in Washington, April 1, 2026.
Alex Brandon/Pool/EPA/Shutterstock
“[Iran is] It’s not strong anymore. Within a couple of days, I think the damage was done. But now it’s already done. Now we’re just chasing goals. “And again, they don’t have anti-aircraft guns, so we float over the top looking for what we want, we hit it, and we have 3,554 other targets, and it will be done very quickly.”
A week earlier, Trump rejected the idea of wanting to reach a ceasefire with Iran, saying it was unnecessary “when you literally wipe out the other side.”
“They don’t have any observers, they don’t have anti-aircraft guns, they don’t have radar, and their leaders have all been killed at every level,” he told reporters as he left the White House.
American military superiority, specifically air dominance, is an assertion repeatedly echoed by the president’s chief military aide, Hegseth.
In a press conference on March 4, Hegseth said that “in less than a week” the United States and Israel would have “full control of the Iranian skies.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, March 31, 2026.
Jonathan Ernst – Reuters
“I hope all the people watching will understand what is indisputable “The airspace and means of complete control,” Hegseth said at the time.
He added: “This means that we will fly all day, all night, day and night, to find, repair and terminate the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian army, and to find and repair their leaders and military commanders, and fly over Tehran, fly over Iran, fly over their capital, and fly over the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.”
Like Trump, Hegseth added, “Iran won’t be able to do anything about it.”
On March 13, during a press conference with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Kean, Hegseth said that Iran “has no air defenses.”
“Iran does not have an air force. Iran does not have a navy,” Hegseth said. “Their missiles, missile launchers and drones are being destroyed or shot out of the sky. Their missile volume has decreased by 90%. And their one-directional attack drones yesterday, decreased by 95%.”
Kaine said Iran is a “resolute enemy” and is “adapting” to the deterioration of its capabilities due to US forces.
In the context of the attack on a base in Kuwait that left six American service members dead early in the war, Hegseth acknowledged that “even though we have amazing air defenses. You might have one every now and then. Unfortunately, we call it a cannon that’s shooting its way through us.”
