United States President Donald Trump said launching military action against Iran did not contradict his campaign rhetoric on avoiding new conflicts, arguing that he had never guaranteed there would be no new wars and defending the ongoing campaign against Tehran as necessary for international security.
“I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?” Trump said in an interview that aired on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, which was recorded on Friday at a farm event in Wisconsin.
Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump frequently highlighted that no new wars began during his first term and said he would help bring peace to global conflicts. In the interview, he said he had never guaranteed there would be no new wars.
“I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months,” he said of the conflict with Iran, which began on 28 February.
Trump said he was “doing the world a service” and “doing our country a service” by acting to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
He also repeated his earlier claim that US strikes had “obliterated” Iranian nuclear sites, while maintaining that military action was necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
He further defended his first-term decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated under former President Barack Obama without securing the replacement deal he had long promised, saying: “It takes years to do these things.”
Addressing the now-abandoned $1.776bn “Anti-Weaponisation Fund”, Trump said he considered it “a great idea” and expressed disappointment that it would not proceed.
The fund was established as part of a settlement resolving Trump’s personal lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the disclosure of his tax returns and was intended to compensate individuals who said federal agencies had been used against them for political reasons.
A federal court blocked the plan, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche later told Congress that the Justice Department had abandoned it, citing the court ruling and opposition from lawmakers who raised concerns about oversight of the fund.
The interview concluded after Trump raised his voice during an exchange with NBC anchor Kristen Welker, referred to her and the media as “crooked”, removed his microphone and said, “Let’s call it quits.”
Welker later said Trump acknowledged that heavy rain had repeatedly interrupted the recording and indicated he would be willing to participate in a follow-up interview.
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