Donald Trump stated on Monday that he does not believe that China and Russia are supporting Iran "at all," dismissing claims that both powers are enabling Tehran in the armed conflict with the United States against the Islamic Republic since February of this year as the work of "idiots and radical left lunatics."
In a post made on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "If they are doing it, it is at a very low level, but I don’t believe they are doing it at all. They have too much to lose, and we would find out, and we would find out very quickly." The statement directly contradicts intelligence reports and testimonies from his own officials before Congress.
The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, acknowledged in July before the Senate that the situation is different. “There are ways in which both countries are, at different levels, enabling some of the things that Iran is doing,” Hegseth stated, according to a video of the hearing circulating on social media. The Secretary added that “the depth and extent” of that support “should remain classified.”
Accredited media reports point in the same direction as Hegseth. According to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, China supplied Iran with components for drones and missiles, and Chinese entities provided satellite imagery of the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan that Tehran used in an attack on July 17, 2026, which resulted in the deaths of three American soldiers.
For its part, The Washington Post reported in March of this year that Russia shared intelligence with Iran regarding the positions of U.S. warships and aircraft to facilitate attacks against U.S. forces in the region.
The Trump administration itself has acted in ways that contradict the presidential message. On October 8, just four days before the post on Truth Social, the Treasury Department sanctioned Chinese and Hong Kong entities for facilitating financial transactions and arms acquisitions in favor of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Trump has tried to keep Beijing and Moscow out of the conflict since the war began on February 28, 2026, when the U.S. and Israel launched "Operation Epic Fury" against Iranian military and nuclear facilities.
In September, during Xi Jinping's visit to Washington, Trump directly warned him against providing support to Iran and received —according to the U.S. ambassador to China— assurances that Beijing would not do so. “He assured me in a beautiful letter that China does not send weapons to Iran,” Trump said of Xi.
However, according to a report from Reuters from late July, China has agreed to sell between 300 and 400 portable air defense missile systems to Iran for between 60 and 70 million dollars, with shipments expected to go through Pakistan.
Moscow and Beijing maintain close ties with Tehran: Russia has warned that the war could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, while China has condemned the U.S. attacks on Iran as "a flagrant violation of Iranian sovereignty."
The general Caine, who also appeared before Congress in July alongside Hegseth, chose not to go into details: “I prefer not to comment on the details because that would reveal what we know. And I never want the opponent to know what I know.”
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