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source_url: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/wildest-things-trump-said-march-16-iran-war-cuba-learning-disabilities.html
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[Donald Trump](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/all-the-trump-insults-at-the-2026-oscars.html) holds a lot of press conferences and says a lot of bonkers things, but every now and then, for some unknowable reason, there will be a day in which he really runs his mouth. Like today (following [an already overactive night on social media](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-goes-ballistic-on-supreme-court-in-overnight-rant.html)). Below are the most notable comments he said across a pair of press conferences on Monday about the [Iran war](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-statements-iran-war-length-changing-timeline.html), people with learning disabilities, Cuba, and more.
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“I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba … I think I can do anything I want.”
At his afternoon Oval Office press conference, Trump was asked how the U.S. military would take Cuba — where [the entire national power grid collapsed today](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/16/cuba-electrical-grid-collapses-amid-us-oil-blockade) amid a U.S. oil blockade. He responded that he believed he’d have “the honor of taking” the “beautiful island,” and said, “Whether I free it, take it — I think I can do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth”:
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Trump claimed either Clinton or Obama or Biden told him they envy his Iran war.
Twice on Monday, Trump claimed that a former president had told him they wished they’d done what he’s now done in Iran. First he said he didn’t want to reveal their name because “that would be very bad for his career even though he has no career”:
Pressed on the matter again, Trump said it wasn’t George W. Bush, which leaves only three living former presidents: Bill Clinton; “Barack Hussein Obama,” as Trump calls him; and Joe Biden. Trump also said it was “somebody I like.” When asked if it was Bill Clinton, Trump said, “I don’t want to say”:
Aides for Clinton, Biden, and Obama [have all denied](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-16-26?post-id=cmmtp9kkj00003b6ugy51zcow) they’ve spoken to Trump about the war, so this all raises another question:
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Trump publicly divulged a congressman’s terminal diagnosis and that “he would be dead by June.”
Who needs privacy about your potentially terminal illness when it might make good dramatic press-conference fodder for the president?
A number of people in the room loudly gasped during Trump’s morning presser when he revealed that 73-year-old Florida congressman Neal Dunn — [who was rumored but not confirmed to be in poor health](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/us/politics/trump-neal-dunn-terminal-diagnosis-johnson.html) — had a heart condition and had been given six months to live, prompting Speaker Mike Johnson to blurt out, “Okay, that wasn’t public.”
The Speaker then explained that Dunn now “has a new lease on life” after Trump linked him up with doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — and Trump joked that he “I did it for him first and the vote second, but it was a close second.”
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“I think the president should not have learning disabilities.”
Trump, referring to California governor Gavin Newsom having dyslexia — which Trump [has previously called a “mental disorder”](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5780788-newsom-fires-back-at-trump-over-post-calling-dyslexia-mental-disorder/) — said it disqualified someone from being president:
Honestly I am all for people with learning disabilities but not for my president. I think the president should not have learning disabilities, okay. I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.
He also suggested that having a learning disability makes you “dumb”:
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He bragged he’s better at attacking Iran than Jimmy Carter.
The U.S. operation President Carter ordered in 1980 to rescue Americans taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran was undoubtedly a failure, but it was a rescue mission, not a war. Regardless, Trump — who has long been preoccupied with Carter and everything about the 1980s — wants everybody to know that he’s the greatest when it comes to attacking Iran:
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‘Sure’ the Iran War will end this week, but it won’t.
Trump offered yet another have-it-all-ways response regarding when the war might end:
Read all the other confusing timetables Trump has offered for the war [here](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-statements-iran-war-length-changing-timeline.html).
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Iran is now a ‘paper tiger.’
Trump dismissed the country and the threat it poses, asserting that the new war has reduced Iran to being a paper tiger but that it hadn’t been one before he attacked it — making clear that Trump is a little confused about the meaning of that term.
Iran’s military capabilities have clearly been significantly diminished by the war, but as of now, the regime has survived and it continues to strike back successfully. Thirteen American servicemembers have been killed in the war, and [another were 200 wounded](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/iran-war-us-israel-trump-03-16-26?post-id=cmmtn7hl00000356uhye2ez9n) or injured across seven countries.
Trump also claimed on Monday that “the greatest experts” didn’t think Iran would retaliate against targets in neighboring countries. (This was another aspect of the war that caught the Trump administration by surprise.) Many Iran experts who actually understand Iran and its military capabilities have been predicting that would happen for a long time.
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He again falsely claimed that he had predicted ‘Osama bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center.’
This isn’t new. He’s been lying about this for more than a decade, but he’s now offering up the story again to back up his claim that he predicted Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz, following multiple reports that he did not, in fact, predict that would happen after bombing Iran and killing its head of state.
Though Trump wrote in his (ghostwritten) book The America We Deserve, which was published in 2000, that he believed “we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the (1993) bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers,” he [did not predict 9/11 or that bin Laden would be responsible](https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/politics/fact-check-trump-false-bin-laden-claim).
This post has been updated. It originally said that the failed operation to rescue American hostages in Iran was in 1981. It was of course the spring of 1980. The hostages were finally released in January 1981 right before Carter left office.
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