President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday morning that he has given the okay for the U.S. to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian boats if they are found to be “harassing” American warships.

He made the declaration via tweet:

I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020

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This follows news that Iranian fast boats came into close proximity with U.S. warships near Kuwait last week. Iran blamed the incident on “the unprofessional and provocative actions of the United States and their indifference to warnings.”

Despite President Trump’s order, the Navy maintains that the “U.S. forces continue to remain vigilant” and “are trained to act in a professional manner” during tense incidents.

Iran is not apparently prepared to back down due to Trump’s threats.

“All you need to do is stop interfering in the affairs of other nations; mine especially,” wrote Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a tweet.

“And believe me, we do not take advice from ANY American politician,” Zarif added.

Relations between the U.S. and the Iranians have soured throughout the year ever since Iranian General Qassim Solemani was assassinated via drone strike in January. The ramifications are still being felt from that aggressive maneuver.

Big League Politics reported on it at the time:

President Donald Trump ordered an airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassim Solemani in Baghdad Thursday, responding to attacks on the US Embassy in the country by Shia militia by striking their Iranian allies forcefully.

Soleimani was a commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, and had been a significant player in Middle Eastern geopolitics for years. Soleimani trained and equipped many of the Shia militias that fought American troops in Iraq after the 2003 invasion of the country.

He would go on to lead military operations as a representative of Iran in the Syrian Civil War, and the war against the ensuing spillover of the ISIS caliphate into Iraq.

Sources indicate that Soleimani was killed by incoming rocket projectiles as he disembarked from a plane arriving at the Baghdad airport.

It goes without saying to American patriots that the Shia Islamist militant was a villain. But it’s worth considering the broader national security considerations of the operation. Neocons may seek to use the operation as a launching pad for full-fledged regime change war in the Middle East.

However, it’s also worth noting that the Trump administration has taken decisive yet limited military action in the region that didn’t result in prolonged conflicts. President Trump has attacked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime twice during his tenure, but Assad has secured a favorable, stable position in the nation’s seemingly endless and proxy-ridden civil war.

President Trump once called the Iraq war “the single worst decision ever made.” He accused former President George W. Bush of “throwing a big fat brick into a hornet’s nest” for his decision to militarily invade iraq and was elected on a platform of putting America first and staying out of geopolitical conflicts.

Now, President Trump may be falling into the same trap that Bush fell into with Iran.