FOX News host Laura Ingraham interviewed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Wednesday, pressing him on the timeline of the Iran conflict and why it has not been resolved after nearly three weeks. Miller argued the real story is how quickly the U.S. has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities in an “incredibly fast” manner.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Why are we having, it seems like to be a continuing nagging problem with the Strait of Hormuz. We’ve all but destroyed Iran’s navy, their leadership, I mean there are five or six people remaining who seem relevant. So I know it’s been 20 days, or we’re in our 20th day now, but why has this taken so long? STEPHEN MILLER: Well I would look at the exact opposite, which is how has this happened so fast? So you’re talking about what would normally be considered a month or even years to achieve these military objectives, instead have been achieved in a matter of days, because under the leadership of President Trump, and then of course with Secretary Hakesis and the Department of War, we are not fighting a politically correct battle. The hands of our warriors are not tied in getting up and going after the objective, and going after the objective ruthlessly, because this is war, and in a war you have to fight totally. And so we’ve seen the leadership of this regime has been completely decapitated and obliterated. We have seen the IRGC dealt one humiliating blow after another. Their navy is in the bottom of the ocean, their air force is in rubble, their ballistics missile program has been annihilated and is getting further annihilated every single day. This is a phased operation, phase by phase, step by step, objective by objective, the President is achieving his goals, and right now, as you have seen, it has been reported, it has been discussed, the United States military is laying waste to targets all across the Strait of Hormuz that Iran uses to menace commerce in that region. But very importantly, the United States is better positioned than any nation in the world to take on this battle. Why? Because President Trump has unleashed American energy, and now, what else is he doing? He’s unleashing Venezuelan energy. INGRAHAM: NATO Secretary General [Mark Rutte] spoke about opening the Strait of Hormuz. Watch. MARK RUTTE: When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, I’ve been in contact with many allies. We all agree, of course, that the Strait has to open up again. And what I know is that allies are working together, discussing how to do that, what is the best way to do it. They are working on that collectively to find a way forward. INGRAHAM: Obviously, that’s Rutte. Have any NATO members told you that they’re going to help? Because so far, France, Germany, UK have been adamant that this is not their problem. MILLER: Well, look, President Trump’s been very clear in his views about the NATO alliance and his views about European countries’ willingness to step up, especially after everything that we have done in Ukraine, a nation that, yes, was invaded, but is far closer to Europe than it is to the United States of America. We have a giant ocean between us, as President Trump says. The rest of the world depends on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, not the United States. But, again, I just want to underscore, this is a conflict that is only days long. The United States has achieved its objectives even faster than anybody thought possible. President Trump was aware of and has calculated through every permutation and every degree of strategy. This has been, by far, the most overwhelming victory based on the objectives-so, in other words, victory over the Navy, victory over the Air Force, victory over the missile launchers in terms of each individual military objective ahead of schedule. So that’s where we are right now. And, again, the president has very wisely, very intelligently created maximum levers for the United States about building up our energy independence as we engage in this conflict. But just imagine, Laura, just think through this for a second. If Iran had long-range missiles, if Iran had thousands more missiles that they could aim at Europe and the United States and our bases, and they were as powerful as they were going to be under the Obama deal, who had a nuclear weapon, and the ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, then the whole world would be at the mercy of this terrorist regime. President Trump alone has stopped that from happening. INGRAHAM: All right. I want to get your reaction to comments from President Trump that surprise some people. Watch. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look what happened. In the last two weeks, they weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked. INGRAHAM: So I mean, we didn’t anticipate everything. He said we didn’t anticipate that, which I’m not necessarily wrong with that. But we do have military planners who spend an enormous amount of time and money gaming out these war plans, Stephen, whether how long it’s going to take us to clear the Strait, when we don’t have minesweeping capabilities that we used to have, we kind of slowly but surely given them away, and the fact that Iran is going to strike other countries in the region. You know, we spent a lot on this. Why didn’t they anticipate this and inform the president of those facts? MILLER: I think you’re saying something very different, Laura. What the president is talking about is the fact that Iran revealed itself by pre-setting its missiles to strike at nations that in many cases were its friends, at least if not its friends, that were noncombatants in the Middle East. And what that revealed, the president’s point is, what that revealed about the Iranian regime, that it underscores their bloodlust, their bloodthirst, how reckless they are, how dangerous they are, what it would look like if they pursued a nuclear weapon while they had the capability to shoot missiles, which they were heading towards, at far more distant targets, all across Europe, all across the Middle East, eventually into the United States, again, while pursuing a nuclear weapon. But from a military planning standpoint, this has been exquisite, Laura, and you talk about military planning, a big part of military planning is having the defensive weapons necessary to shoot down those Iranian missiles. So what we’re not talking about is, it’s American planning, American imaging, American weaponry that is shooting down those Iranian drones, that is shooting down those Iranian missiles, that is killing those launchers. It’s the Iranians that are being overwhelmed at every single step along the way. The United States had exquisite intelligence that you are now seeing about their plans, their capabilities, their preparations, the locations of their resources, their launchers, their military bases, their commander’s headquarters. INGRAHAM: They’re getting help from Russia. MILLER: Yes, but the… INGRAHAM: Yeah, they’re getting help from Russia, as well, we understand, and we anticipate that? MILLER: We, of course, we anticipated that, of course, Iran would try to reach out to anybody they thought that could help them, but the bottom line is that our capabilities are so far beyond anyone else’s in the world, as we’ve seen with Midnight Hammer, as we’ve seen with Absolute Resolve, and as we’re seeing now with Epic Fury. It’s very important that nobody in the United States be gaslit by the Iranian propaganda. The IRGC has been crushed. Their leadership is dying. Their ability to project their power is waning by the day. Their command structure is being ripped apart. Their infrastructure is being steadily eroded. They are being turned into a weaker and weaker and weaker power every single day. That is a story that needs to get told, Laura. INGRAHAM: And do you believe there’s anyone, there’s going to be anyone left? We went through the few people who are remaining. There’s not that many. The head of the justice system, if you could call it a justice system. But is there anyone remaining that you think would actually, I mean, I don’t want to say be trustworthy, or could be in a position to, quote, negotiate when it’s, obviously, it’s unconditional surrender. That’s the only thing that we’re going to demand or tolerate. MILLER: The American military objective is to neuter the regime, to render them impotent. That is what President Trump is doing. Day by day, the regime is being rendered impotent in terms of being able to wield instruments of national power against the world. Ultimately, the Iranian people will have to decide for themselves what kind of future they want. But President Trump will not allow this regime, this blood-lusting regime, to hold us hostage with energy blackmail, missile blackmail, or nuclear blackmail. INGRAHAM: Not going to happen. Stephen, thank you very much.

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