President Donald Trump said he deliberately dismantled a nuclear agreement negotiated under Barack Obama in order to prevent what he described as an existential threat to Israel.
Speaking to reporters, Trump argued that the deal, widely known as the Iran nuclear deal, would have enabled Iran to eventually develop nuclear weapons, putting Israel at risk of being “wiped off the face of the Earth.”
The president told reporters on Monday April 6th, that Americans who want the war with Iran to end are “foolish” and claimed that withdrawing from former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement prevented Israel’s destruction.
Trump made the remarks during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll when asked about public opposition to the ongoing conflict.
“They’re foolish because the war is about one thing: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Had we not broken the Barack Hussein Obama agreement, you know that, you know what I’m talking about, the Iran nuclear deal. This is years ago, my first term you would have had a total Israel would have been gone, extinguished. Israel would have been wiped off the face of the Earth and the entire Middle East would have been, at a minimum, in big trouble. But I did it. That was phase one.”
The president was responding to a reporter’s question about Americans who are not fans of the war. The United States and Israel have been engaged in military action against Iran for more than a month.
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Trump went on to say that Iran’s leadership does not want to give in. He warned that if they do not, the country would lose key infrastructure.
“I hate to do it, but we’re obliterating and they just don’t want to say, ‘uncle.’ They don’t want to cry as the expression goes ‘uncle.’ But they will. And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges, they’ll have no power plants, they’ll have no anything,” he said.
Trump also spoke about what he would prefer to do if not for public pressure to end the fighting.
“If it were up to me, I’d take the oil. I’d keep the oil and would make plenty of money,” he said. “Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home.”
He added that the Iranian government has killed 45,000 protesters and that the United States does not act that way. Trump said he would also take care of the Iranian people better than their current leaders if he could stay longer.
“But I also want to make the people of our country happy. I think most people wouldn’t understand that,” he said.
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The comments came as the U.S. continues operations against Iran following attacks that began more than a month ago. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for oil, prompting further U.S. threats to Iranian infrastructure.
Why This Matters
Trump’s statements tie the current war directly to his decision during his first term to exit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
That agreement, reached under Obama, limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the U.S. from it in 2018, calling it a bad deal that did not go far enough.
His remarks on Monday frame the military campaign as a continuation of that earlier action to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The president presented the choice as one between allowing Iran to keep its nuclear path open or taking steps to remove that threat, even at the cost of prolonged conflict.
Public desire for the war to end appears to limit how far Trump says he wants to go, including seizing Iran’s oil resources. The comments showsthe tension between the administration’s goals in the region and domestic pressure to bring U.S. forces home.
