HAMILTON, Canada

US President Donald Trump said Monday that even if Washington had known that Iran would strike Gulf countries in retaliation, it still would have carried out its military campaign against Tehran.

"It's not a question of like, 'Gee, should you have known?' And if we did know, big deal. I mean, we have to do what we have to do," Trump said during an event at the White House.

Noting that multiple Gulf nations have come under Iranian fire, he said: "Saudi Arabia, all of a sudden, Kuwait. Kuwait is getting hit. Bahrain is getting…All these countries are getting hit," adding that "there was no expert that would say that was going to happen."

Trump further argued that the US response had severely degraded Iran's military capabilities, saying: "We hit them so hard, like nobody's ever been hit" and claiming Washington had destroyed "most of their missiles" and "extinguished most of their drones."