Trump's WW3 Iran armada warning 'what we did to your nuclear sites will look like peanuts'

President Donald Trump revealed that US military vessels and aircraftare presently travelling towards Iran (Image: Getty Images)

President Donald Trump revealed that US military vessels and aircraftare presently travelling towards Iran on Thursday.

Trump confirmed to journalists aboard Air Force One that an "armada" of ships and flotillas is heading in Iran's direction. An audio recording of the informal press briefing aboard was posted on X by Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based, bipartisan non-profit policy organisation.

"We have a lot of ships on their way to Iran," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday. "We'll see what happens. We have a big force on its way over there. I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely."

The announcement follows Trump's backing of anti-government demonstrators in Iran, which erupted last month and the mighty American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is relentlessly sailing from the Asia-Pacific to the Middle East.

Iranian state media claims that more than 3,000 have died during a government suppression of dissent, though there are significant variations in the death toll from different organisations.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency recently calculated that 4,519 were killed during the wave of protests, including 4,251 demonstrators, 197 security forces, 35 people under 18 years old and 38 bystanders, whilst noting that approximately 9,049 additional fatalities remain under investigation. Thousands more have also been detained.

During the press briefing, Trump declared that he prevented hundreds of executions, which he condemned as a barbaric practice. He maintains he warned Iranian leadership with reprisals if they went ahead with the hangings.

"It'll make what we did to your nuclear sites look like peanuts," Trump claims he told Iran. "They cancelled [the executions]. They didn't postpone it, which is a good sign."

He subsequently refused to comment on whether he desires Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign.

"They know what we want. There's a lot of killing going on," Trump said. "We talk to them a lot. They should have made a deal when we hit them with the nuclear because that was a devastating hit."

The USS Abraham Lincoln is on it's way to the Gulf (Image: Getty)

Several days earlier, Trump suggested that he seeks regime change in Iran and held the country's leader responsible for the civil unrest.

"It's time to look for new leadership in Iran," Trump told Politico. "[Khamenei] is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people. Leadership is about respect, not fear and death."

Following Trump's comments, a senior Iranian military official threatened reprisals against the U.S., according to Iranian state media, per Iran International.

A senior Iranian military official warned of severe retaliation against the United States after President Donald Trump called Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a "sick man" and said it was time for new leadership in Tehran, state media reported. "We do not take Trump's noise very seriously," Iranian Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said at a public event.

Donald Trump addresses anti-regime protests in Iran

"Trump knows that if a hand is stretched toward our leader, we will not only cut that hand off-we will set their world on fire. This is not a slogan."

The remarks follow Trump's declaration that he would "wipe [Iran] off the face of this Earth" in response to allegations about threats on his life.

"I've left notification, if anything ever happens... the whole country's going to get blown up," Trump said. "I would absolutely hit them so hard. I have very firm instructions, anything happens, they're going to wipe them off the face of this Earth."

The demonstrations erupted in late December when traders started protesting against the plummeting currency value and rising living costs, which then escalated into broader anti-government unrest.