Trump says Putin may be helping Iran ‘a bit’

United States President Donald Trump said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin may be helping Iran a "little bit" in an interview with Fox News Radio that aired on Friday.

“I think he might be helping him (Iran) a little bit, yeah, I guess. And he probably thinks we're helping Ukraine, right?," Trump told 'The Brian Kilmeade Show'. 

He also said the US would escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz if needed, adding that the US would strike Iran "very hard over the next week".

Asked about helping oil tankers pass through the key shipping strait, Trump said: "We would do it if we needed to. But, you know, hopefully things are going to go very well. We're going to see what happens."

He gave no other details.

"We're going to be hitting them very hard over the next week," he added in the interview.

His comments come as the US and other countries face spiking oil and gas prices with the US-Israel war entering its 14th day, with oil prices hovering near $100 a barrel on Friday.

Seapratey, he said he felt honored to be killing Iran's leadership, calling them "deranged scumbags".

"They've been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th president of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honour it is to do so!" Trump posted on social media shortly after midnight in Washington.

Iran's longtime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and numerous other top figures in Tehran have been assassinated since the war was launched by the US and Israel on February 28.

Trump struck out at media coverage questioning the success of the war, saying "you would incorrectly think that we are not winning".

Iran's military is "being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth", he said.

"We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition and plenty of time — Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today," Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump's defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the US military would bombard Iran more heavily on Friday than any other day so far in the war.

"In fact, today will be yet again, the highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran and Tehran," he told a press conference.

A woman sits outside her destroyed apartment after it was damaged by an airstrike while she was inside, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 12, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS