The president threatened that the U.S. will “hit” Iran “with a force that has never been seen before!”

President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iran just after midnight as tensions in the Middle East threaten to spiral.

“Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

The post, signed off “President DONALD J. TRUMP,” marked his most explicit threat yet of overwhelming retaliation.

Three United States service members have been killed in action, and five are “seriously wounded” in the war Trump launched overnight Saturday, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.

“As of 9:30 am ET, March 1, three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury,” a spokesperson wrote Sunday at 9:49 a.m.

The announcement came hours after Tehran signaled it would intensify its response to ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes in retaliation for airstrikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader.

The president shifted his focus back to the war he started after hosting a glitzy fundraiser at his sprawling Florida estate on Saturday night—even as Iranian missiles lit up the Middle East, targeting the U.S. and its allies in the region.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, lashed out Sunday, calling U.S. and Israeli leaders “filthy criminals” and vowing they would suffer “devastating blows” for crossing Iran’s “red line.”

In a televised address, he warned: “You have crossed our red line and must pay the price.”

In a statement posted to its official Telegram channel, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed to launch the “most ferocious offensive operation in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces” against Israel and U.S. bases, saying the operation would begin “any moment now.”

Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, issued a stern warning to countries with U.S. military bases on X Sunday morning.

“To the countries of the region: We are not seeking to attack you,” he wrote Sunday morning in a post viewed over a million times at publication. “But when the bases located in your country are used against us, and when the United States carries out operations in the region relying on these forces, then we will target those bases.”

He continued: “For these bases are not part of the land of those countries; rather, they are American soil.”

Israel Emergency Services reported at least eight people were killed and 28—including children— were wounded in a “missile barrage” on Saturday and overnight in the country.

The United Arab Emirates Defense Ministry told ABC News three people were killed and 58 were injured in Iranian attacks over the weekend. The people killed were from Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, according to the statement.

In Kuwait, one person has been killed and 32 others injured since Iran launched strikes on the country, the BBC reported.

It’s not clear to anyone—including Trump—how long he intends to continue the war he just launched.

“I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs],’” Trump told Axios in a five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago on Saturday.

He also admitted that U.S. troops may die in the process.

“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties, that often happens in war,” he said in a video he posted early on Saturday morning, wearing no tie and a white USA trucker hat.

Trump Cites Reasons for Targeting Iran; U.S. Prepares ‘Massive Wave of Attacks’

In a speech at the White House on March 2, U.S. President Donald Trump made his first public statements regarding the military campaign against Iran that he initiated.

The Guardian quoted President Trump in his speech as saying that the Iranian regime had ignored “Washington’s warnings and refused to cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons, even after the U.S. ‘destroyed’ Iran’s nuclear program last year.”

“Iran has created an imminent threat to Washington’s forces in the region. Their conventional ballistic missile program is developing rapidly and powerfully, creating a clear and massive threat to the U.S. and our forces stationed abroad,” Mr. Trump spoke before many high-ranking U.S. officials present at the White House.

“Epic Fury” Ahead of Schedule; Donald Trump Does Not Rule Out Ground Troops in Iran

President Donald Trump said on March 2 that he does not rule out the possibility of sending U.S. ground troops into Iran “if necessary,” according to The New York Post. Mr. Donald Trump claimed that the campaign named “Epic Fury” is “running very far ahead of schedule” after eliminating dozens of high-ranking Iranian officials.

The U.S. President spoke after launching attacks on February 28 aimed at degrading Iran’s military and political leadership: “I have no fear of deploying ground troops—unlike every other president who usually says ‘there will be no boots on the ground.’ I am not saying that. I am only saying that perhaps they won’t be needed, or if they are truly necessary, they will be deployed.”

U.S. Secretary of War (Department of Defense) Pete Hegseth stated at a Pentagon press conference on March 2 that there are currently no U.S. soldiers inside Iran, though he also did not rule out the possibility.

Mr. Hegseth told reporters: “President Donald Trump is ensuring the adversary understands that we will go as far as necessary to advance U.S. interests. But we are not acting foolishly; there is no need to pour 200,000 troops in there and stay for 20 years.”

Previously, Mr. Donald Trump told the Daily Mail that he estimated the campaign would last “about 4 weeks.” However, on March 2, he hinted to The New York Post that the duration could be shortened.

“The campaign will take place quite quickly. We are right on schedule, even far ahead of the plan regarding the elimination of leadership—49 people killed—and that, you know, we once calculated would take at least 4 weeks but we did it in one day,” the U.S. President explained.

Mr. Donald Trump also stated that he is not concerned about Iran using “terrorism” to retaliate against the U.S. following last weekend’s attack.

According to the American leader, he made the final decision to attack, in coordination with Israel, “after final negotiations” on February 26 in Geneva (Switzerland), partly because intelligence showed Iran was quietly resuming nuclear projects at a “completely different location.”

President Donald Trump revealed to The New York Post that his decision was based on decades of Iranian actions.

“Don’t forget this has been going on for 47 years. During those 47 years, they have played dirty,” Mr. Donald Trump said, citing the 1983 barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 241 Americans, and the 1979-1981 hostage crisis following the attack on the U.S. embassy in Tehran.