Trump said US military officials told him sinking Iranian ships is 'more fun' than capturing them

In March 2026, a number of social media posts shared a clip of U.S. President Donald Trump speaking about military action against Iranian ships. According the posts (archived), Trump said, "I said, 'Why don't we just capture the ship? We could use it. Why did we sink them?' He said, 'It's more fun to sink them.' They like sinking them better."

The claim was shared across multiple platforms, including X (archived), Reddit (archived) and Facebook (archived).

The quote about sinking Iranian ships being more fun than capturing them was correctly attributed to Trump. He said it as part of a March 9, 2026, speech at the Republican Members Issues Conference hosted by the Congressional Institute at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami.

The White House uploaded the speech to its YouTube account and put the video on its website. At 15:15 in the YouTube video, Trump talks about sinking Iran's ships (emphasis ours):

The Navy is gone. It's all lying at the bottom of the ocean, 46 ships. Can you believe it? In fact, I got a little upset with our people. I said, "What quality of ship?" "Excellent, sir. Top of the line." I said, "Why don't we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?" They said, "It's more fun to sink them." I said [unclear]. They like sinking them better. They say it's safer to sink them. I guess it's probably true. But think of it, we knocked out 46 and actually took three and a half days.

Trump delivered the line in a joking tone, suggesting he may not have intended it to be taken literally. The anecdote drew some laughter from the Republican members of Congress in the audience.

Snopes emailed the White House for clarification on who, precisely, the "people" Trump referred to in the quote were. We will update this story if we receive an answer. 

For further reading, Snopes has previously fact-checked other claims about Trump quotes and Iran.