Trump says Iran may have shot down U.S. military drone in ‘loose and stupid’ mistake

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Iranian shoot down of an American drone may have not been intentional, but rather a “mistake” by someone just being “loose and stupid.”

Trump spoke following a meeting with his top national security advisers after Iran, in what appeared to have been a major provocation, shot down what the U.S. military said was an unarmed and unmanned U.S. RQ-4A Global Hawk drone flying in international airspace over the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump told reporters that the shoot down of the drone was a “new wrinkle” in escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran — a “fly in the ointment.”

He was coy about whether the U.S. would respond, saying only that “you’ll find out.”

He said he has a feeling that it was a mistake — that a “general or somebody” made a mistake in shooting that drone down.

But he added that Iran made a “big mistake” and that the U.S. “will not stand for it.”

Trump’s words appear to signal that there may not be an immediate U.S. response to the incident, but a top Iranian commander warned Iran was “ready for war.”