Donald Trump’s bizarre 9-word verdict on if Russia is helping Iran fight back | World | News

President Donald Trump says it is irrelevant if Russia is supplying Iran with intelligence to help Tehran target U.S. military targets and assets in the Middle East.

The president downplayed the significance of such information-sharing after he attended the dignified transfer for six Army reservists who were killed in a drone strike in Kuwait the day after the U.S. and Israel initiated a war on Iran that has disrupted the global economy.

Instead, the US commander in chief simply said: “If they’re getting information, it’s not helping them much.”

The odd intervention comes hours after it was reported that Russian tech was also found inside the drone used to attack RAF Akotiri in Cyprus last week. Believed to have been fired by Hezbollah from the Lebanon, the fact Russian technology was found inside the device has raised more questions about Russia‘s involvement in the current conflict in the Midde East.

Yesterday Trump refrained from confirming reports that U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia has provided Iran with such targeting information. However, if Moscow is disseminating such details, he said Iran was gaining little from it.

“If you take a look at what’s happened to Iran in the last week, if they’re getting information, it’s not helping them much,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Miami, where he’s spending the remainder of the weekend.

The president also dismissed a question about how Russia assisting Iran in such a manner might influence his view of the U.S.-Russia relationship.

“They’d say we do it against them,” Trump retorted. “Wouldn’t they say that we do it against them?”.

Ukraine, in the four years since it was invaded by Russia, has received U.S. intelligence to help defend against incoming missiles from Russia as well as to help Kyiv hit certain Russian targets.

Dismissing the importance of Russia passing battlespace intelligence to Iran came after the U.S. Treasury Department announced earlier this week that it was temporarily permitting India to continue purchasing crude oil and petroleum products from Russia for a month, until April 4.

The administration’s decision to grant the world’s most populous nation a temporary exemption met with bipartisan backlash. Critics argue that Trump was handing Russia a lifeline that will provide Moscow with desperately needed revenue as it seeks to continue financing its war machine.

Trump has chosen to grant India flexibility on oil purchases from Russia as global oil prices soar and investors across sectors fret about how long the Iran war will persist.

The waiver for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government followed Trump announcing weeks ago that he was slashing tariffs on India after their officials agreed to reduce its dependence on cheap Russian crude. India has capitalised on reduced Russian oil prices whilst much of the world has sought to isolate Moscow for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The price of oil has surged higher and shows no signs of stopping a week into a war that the U.S. and Israel launched and has expanded throughout the Middle East as Tehran retaliates. Vessels that transport roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day are unable to safely navigate through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance of the Persian Gulf that is bordered on its northern side by Iran.

The shipping disruption and damage to key Middle East oil and gas facilities has interrupted supplies from some of the world’s largest oil producers.

Asked whether he was willing to take other steps to ease oil prices, Trump said that “if there were some, I would do it, just to take a little of the pressure off.”

He appeared Saturday to dismiss, at least for now, the possibility of tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, saying the U.S. has a “lot of oil.”

The reserve – a supply of oil that the U.S. government can tap in case of emergencies – held more than 415 million barrels as of the end of last month, up from about 395 million barrels at this time in 2025. In total, when full, the SPR can hold more than 700 million barrels.

“We’ve got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount,” Trump said. “There’s a lot of oil out there. That’ll get healed very quickly.”