Hegseth sends strong message to Iran and Houthis: 'You will pay'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a message to Iran on Wednesday night, warning the country that, because of its "LETHAL" support of the Houthis terrorist organization, they will pay the consequences.

"We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing," Hegseth said in a post on X. "You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing."

Earlier this week, a Houthi drone forced the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to make an evasive maneuver, which some believe caused an F-18 fighter jet worth $67 million to fall off the carrier and into the Red Sea.

$70M NAVY F-18 FIGHTER JET FALLS INTO RED SEA OFF THE USS HARRY S TRUMAN

The move came after 47 straight days of U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets.

Hegseth then retweeted a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump from March 17.

"Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN," Trump posted. "Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that the force will stop there.

"Iran has played the ‘innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control," the president continued. "They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’ Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!"