President Donald Trump said Iran was just weeks away from producing a nuclear weapon before U.S. forces struck its nuclear facilities, declaring that Tehran’s capabilities have since been devastated and that the regime is now facing mounting military and economic pressure.
Speaking in an interview with British journalist Bev Turner on GB News that aired Thursday, Trump said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons remains the central objective of the U.S. campaign. He said three known Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and indicated that Washington is closely watching activity at another location known as Pickaxe Mountain.
“Well, they had three sites and now they may have Pickaxe Mountain. But the three sites have been obliterated. But we have a thing called Space Force, which is very effective, that I started in my first term. Very effective. And we have cameras on every major area of the first three. And we also have cameras on Pickaxe Mountain. And we know everybody that walks in and walks out. We can read the name…so we know everything that’s going on. So we’re very certain.”
.@POTUS: We have to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon, and we've done that. We've defeated their navy, their air force, their leadership structure. We have control over the Hormuz Strait. Their money is valueless. They're in big trouble. pic.twitter.com/BXYgpNqsJR
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 3, 2026
Trump told Turner that the U.S. military action was also protecting Britain and other European countries, contending that an Iranian nuclear weapon could pose an even more immediate danger to Europe because Tehran possesses missiles capable of reaching European targets.
“I’m saving your country from the threat, too, because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, they’re more likely to use it in Europe, where they do have missile capability, than they are to America where they don’t. And I’m saving your country from a problem because they would use it.”
According to Trump, Iran had come within as little as two to four weeks of obtaining a nuclear weapon. He also pointed to his withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action during his first term, saying that abandoning the Obama-era nuclear agreement prevented Iran from reaching that point years earlier.
“They were two weeks, maybe four weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. And we attacked them with the bombers. I also did something else in my first term. I ended the Obama, the JCPOA – that’s the agreement, the Obama nuclear disaster, where it was basically a short road to a nuclear weapon. And they would have had a nuclear weapon five years ago if I didn’t terminate that. I terminated the deal. But then, very importantly, a year and a couple of months ago, we attacked them at those three big sites where they had lots of nuclear dust, I call it. It’s material that will could easily be turned into a nuclear weapon. It went through the whole process and it’s now buried under millions of tons of mountain, and will be very hard to get to.”
Addressing the broader conflict in the Middle East, Trump said his primary concern is ensuring that Tehran never acquires nuclear weapons. He also claimed that Iran’s conventional military capabilities and leadership have suffered enormous damage.
“The Middle East has “been a problem for 2,000 years. They’ve been fighting. Look, I’m there because we have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon. And it is the Middle East. And we’ve done that. We’ve defeated their Navy. We defeated their Air Force. We’ve defeated them. Their leaders are gone. Everything is gone.”
Trump also discussed the latest round of American strikes against Iran, saying U.S. forces had targeted Iranian radar systems while maintaining control over the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz. He portrayed Tehran as facing severe economic deterioration alongside its battlefield losses.
“We took out their radar. They just put new radar in,” Trump said when referencing the strikes. “We control the Hormuz Strait.We have great control over the Hormuz Strait. We’re taking out 30, 40 boats a night and a lot of oil is coming out of there. So we control the Hormuz Strait and their economy is crashing. Their inflation could be 300 percent. Their money is valueless. It’s two million to one or something like that. And it’s going up every day. So they’re in big trouble.”
Trump’s comments to GB News aired one day after he told reporters that he believes the latest phase of the confrontation with Iran may be approaching its conclusion.
When asked how much longer he expected the renewed fighting to continue, Trump replied, “Not too long”.
He then questioned how much longer Tehran could withstand the intensity of the American military campaign.
“I don’t think it will be very much longer. I don’t know how much more they can take,” Trump said of Iran.
At the same time, the president made clear that Washington is prepared to continue striking Iranian targets if circumstances warrant additional military action.
“It was a very heavy attack last night, and we are prepared to do another one anytime we want,” he stressed.
Trump returned to the subject during an event in the Rose Garden later Wednesday, where he said the latest American operations had inflicted substantial losses on Iran and significantly weakened its ability to continue fighting.
The president said the U.S. campaign is intended to protect Israel, the broader Middle East and the United States from the threat posed by Iran, warning that Tehran’s ambitions would extend far beyond Israel if left unchecked.
“We’re doing it to help the Middle East, we’re doing it to help Israel, we’re doing it to help ourselves, because after they annihilate Israel, which they would’ve done very gladly, and then the Middle East, then they come after Europe and they come after some of our cities before we put them away.”
{Matzav.com}
