During an Oval Office event on Wednesday afternoon, a reporter asked Donald Trump for his reaction to the news that inflation has reached a three-year high. The president responded that the new data was “great,” adding, “I love the inflation.”

And while that was strange, it quickly got worse. As part of his explanation for why he professed his “love” of inflation, Trump went on to say, “You know, I can say it now, something you didn’t know. You know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran — until right now.”

He said this operation involved 22 ships that traveled “with no lights” and went undetected because Iranians “don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it.”

Even at face value, this was difficult to understand. The president loves inflation because the United States is taking oil out of the Middle East?

Complicating matters, there was also uncertainty about the nature and accuracy of Trump’s claims, even within his own White House Cabinet. MS NOW reported as part of the network’s liveblog coverage:

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was simultaneously testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, told lawmakers that he did not know of any such operation.

Wright said he was not aware of “millions” of barrels of oil having been extracted from Iran, but he said earlier in the hearing that the U.S. military ‌had ⁠helped get some oil out of the Strait of Hormuz.

As a rule, Wright can be counted on to toe the party line on pretty much anything Trump says, but when pressed by Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes of Ohio on the president’s public comments, Wright said Trump was merely “talking casually.”

SYKES: *plays audio of Trump claiming US is stealing Iranian oil*WRIGHT: I think the president is talking casually SYKES: Do you think that it's appropriate to 'talk casually' about war?WRIGHT: I think you talk to all different audiences and you talk in all different styles

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-10T18:22:57.391Z

When Sykes followed up by asking about the propriety of a president speaking “casually” about a war, the energy secretary was reduced to saying, “I think you talk to all different audiences, and you talk in all different styles.”

What did that mean in this context? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s similarly unclear whether Wright’s use of the word “casually” was meant to convey the idea that sometimes Trump just says stuff without any meaningful regard for accuracy.

That said, it’s certainly possible that 22 ships moved through the Strait of Hormuz. The New York Times noted, however, “He did not say what time period he meant. Ordinarily, dozens of oil tankers would pass through the strait each day, and thousands would have done so since the war began, if not for Iran’s blockade.”

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The specific details of what transpired on Monday are still coming into focus, but according to U.S. Central Command, an Army AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed off the coast of Oman and the two crew members on board were rescued and are in stable condition. Whether the incident was the result of a deliberate Iranian attack is the subject of some debate.

The Trump administration accused Iran of downing the helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, while officials in Tehran said it was instead caught in the crossfire of drone attacks against commercial vessels.

Of particular interest, though, was Donald Trump’s reaction. On Tuesday morning, the president spoke to The Wall Street Journal and downplayed the importance of the incident. In fact, according to the Journal’s article, the Republican “repeatedly” said the downing of the helicopter “wasn’t a big deal.”

It soon became a very big deal, indeed.

A few hours after the president told the Journal that the incident wasn’t especially important, he used his social media platform to announce that Iranians “shot down” a U.S. helicopter, which would necessitate a military response. With this in mind, MS NOW reported overnight:

The United States military said it completed its latest round of strikes on Iran on Tuesday following the earlier downing of a U.S. helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command announced.

The Associated Press reported that Iran said it retaliated with attacks in Bahrain and Kuwait and claimed it targeted a military base in Jordan that hosts U.S. forces. Jordan later confirmed that it had shot down five missiles.

We remain in the middle of a ceasefire in which the fire hasn’t ceased.

Why did Trump go from “repeatedly” saying the downing of the helicopter “wasn’t a big deal” to approving another round of military strikes? The Wall Street Journal went on to report that it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine who recommended additional military action, which led the president to change his mind. (This reporting has not been independently verified by MS NOW.)

As for the road forward, early Tuesday, Trump said that a deal to end the war could be reached “in two or three days.” Roughly 24 hours later, the American president said largely the opposite, writing online, “Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore — They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”

This didn’t make a whole lot of sense — it was weird to see Trump claim that Iran is powerless and “all talk and no action” while also accusing it of having “shot down” a U.S. helicopter — though the combination of military strikes and mixed messages once again suggest the end point to the conflict is not near.

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