In remarks to reporters on Monday, President Trump linked both the sudden withdrawal of U.S. bombers from RAF Fairford in southern England and last week’s FlyDubai incident to Iran. Asked if the sudden departure of the bombers had been due to threats, Trump said: “I think we can say that. I mean, they didn’t fly out by accident. Yeah, they’re small, but there were some threats.” He added: “And rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy, but why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit, not very far.”

Later, when asked if he thought Iran had brought combat drones into the UK, he said, “I can’t tell you that. But if they did, they’ll suffer greatly. ... And we actually know the people that made the threat.”