Trump Tells Welker He Made No Anti-War Promise, Says Iran Strikes Eliminated Nuclear Threat Without Starting Endless Conflict

President Donald Trump said he did not promise to avoid starting wars and described the current conflict with Iran as neither endless nor a quagmire. -Israel campaign that began after nuclear talks collapsed. “So when you say I ‘promised,’ I didn’t promise anything.

I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months. Much of it has been under the form — a pretty good form — of ceasefire,” Trump told host Kristen Welker.

Trump said the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, 2026, after talks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program broke down. He added that he ordered B-2 bomber strikes on enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan in June 2025.

“I’m going to do it either through negotiation, where we’re very close to a deal, or I’m going to blow the hell out of them, to be honest with you.

And it’s going to be very easy for me to do that,” he said. Welker reminded Trump of his 2016 campaign description of the Middle East as a quagmire. Trump replied that the present situation was not one.

“It’s not a quagmire. Just wiped out the military of a very dangerous country. And I wiped out the nuclear threat. Let me tell you, if we left tomorrow, we just said, ‘All right, let’s get out,’ it’ll take them 15 or 20 years to rebuild back,” he said.

In his 2024 victory speech, Trump had said the United States had no wars during his previous term except the defeat of ISIS and declared, “I’m not going to start a war. ” Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated on May 10, 2026, that Iran possessed material for ten nuclear devices and over 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60 percent.

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff made similar claims in a March 2 interview.

The administration has not publicly released evidence supporting those assertions. Trump and other officials stated that the Iranian nuclear weapons program was obliterated by the June 2025 strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States acted because an Iranian response to a planned Israeli attack could have targeted American forces.

Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned on March 17, 2026. He claimed the conflict began due to pressure from Israel and its American lobby and argued that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States.