As Iran retaliates, largest US military base in Middle East hit by ballistic missile, Qatar says

President Donald Trump was pressed by reporters Tuesday about future plans for Iran.

The president said strikes on Iran were continuing, saying there was a strike on Tuesday “on the new leadership.”

“I guess there was another hit today on the new leadership, and it looks like that was pretty substantial, also. So they're getting hit very hard, and we'll see what happens,” Trump said.

The president also seemed to claim an early victory, saying the U.S. has Iran "beaten militarily."

"They're still lobbing some missiles. At some point, they won't even be able to do that because we're hitting all of their carriers. We're hitting all of their missile stock. You know, they built up all these missiles over the last few years. They had a lot of them. They've shot a lot of them. And we're knocking out a lot,” Trump said.

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

President Donald Trump suggested that the worst-case scenario to come from these strikes is that regime change would go wrong and “somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person.”

He also suggested the people of Iran would have their “chance” to choose a leader, but he’s instructed, “Don't do it yet.”

“It would probably be the worst -- you go through this, and then in five years, you realize you put somebody in who is no better. So we'd like to see somebody in there that's going to bring it back for the people, and we'll see what happens with the people. You know, they have their chance. We've said, ‘Don't do it yet.’ If you're going to go out and protest, don't do it yet. It's very dangerous out there. A lot of bombs are being dropped,” Trump said.

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

The State Department said it is working on “actively securing military aircraft and charter flights for American citizens who wish to leave the Middle East,” according to the department’s Assistant Secretary for Global Public Affairs.

"We've been in direct contact with nearly 3,000 Americans abroad,” he said in a post on X.

-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston

President Donald Trump on Tuesday contradicted the words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Israel’s plans to attack Iran prompted the president to launch strikes.

Asked by ABC News if Israel forced his hand to launch strikes, Trump responded, “No. I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack. If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.”

“Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen,” he said. “So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready and we were ready.”

On Monday, Rubio said the threat from Iran was "imminent" because the U.S. knew Iran would retaliate against the U.S. if attacked, including by Israel.

"There absolutely was an imminent threat," Rubio said. "And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit, sit there and absorb a blow before we respond.

Trump said Tuesday that he was "surprised" that Iran was hitting other countries.

"Amazingly, they're hitting countries that were, you know, let's call them neutral, right? They lived together for a long time,” he said. “They -- I think they were surprised. I was surprised.”

-ABC News’ Rachel Scott and Fritz Farrow