Trump faces questions on conflict with Iran during NATO summit press conference

[0:00] We've been listening to President Trump hold a press conference in Turkey on the final day of [0:04] the high-stakes NATO summit, which he called very successful, and adding there was tremendous unity [0:10] among NATO members. The president speaking for more than 30 minutes there, describing the Iran [0:15] war as a tremendous military success. The president now saying he's not sure he wants to make a deal [0:22] with Iranian leaders, but that the action the U.S. does take with Iran will be over very quickly. [0:28] The comments coming just hours after he declared the ceasefire with Iran is over and announced the [0:33] U.S. intends to strike Iran again tonight. The president also saying oil prices will come down. [0:39] We will note oil prices are up sharply today after the U.S. launched new strikes. Let's bring in NBC [0:45] News Chief White House Correspondent Garrett Haake, who's at the press conference. Garrett, let me just [0:51] begin with a quick fact check here. Oil prices right now are up very sharply. They're at 75 [0:58] dollars a barrel. They were 67 before the war began. The president has said continually [1:02] that oil prices have come way down. We're going to keep them down. They're lower today than before [1:07] the war. Just fact check. That is not true. Oil prices are higher today than before the war began. [1:16] Yeah, that's right, Christine. And you heard the president, I think, try to, you know, [1:20] affect those markets with his comments today, essentially downplaying this resumption of [1:24] some kind of up-tempo combat operations against Iran. He suggested that this will be quick, [1:31] that this will be sort of a short-term operation. He really avoided directly answering whether he [1:36] considers this a resumption of war. And he never really gave an answer as to exactly how the U.S. [1:42] gets out of this in his estimation, only that it's not going to be, in his view, a massive disruption [1:48] of the U.S. economy. Obviously, that's not something he has control over. But it is something [1:53] that he's trying to directly influence with his remarks across all of his appearances today in [1:59] front of reporters. Garrett, just quickly, what did you hear from the president in those remarks [2:04] there? Does it sound as if we are on the verge of another big offensive against Iran? You heard a [2:10] couple of reporters ask him, is this war restarted? Why isn't it over yet? Yeah, and look, I think he [2:18] avoided what would have been an easy answer to say yes. I mean, the reality here is that the options [2:22] for the president haven't gotten any better than they were in June when he started this process of [2:28] negotiating a peace deal with the Iranians. I mean, they're not able to bomb the Strait of Hormuz [2:34] open if Iran wants it closed. They're not able to definitively remove the nuclear material that still [2:39] exists and is buried in Iran. And the president continues to describe that as buried in such a [2:43] technically complicated way that it could never get back out. The only option for a long-term [2:48] solution is still to talk. And the talking, it seems like he is still blessing, even though he [2:54] believes, in his own words this morning, it's a waste of time. And so we're in a situation where [2:59] there are no good options. And this kind of muddy status quo seems to be satisfactory to the president. [3:07] Garrett, there in the room, I want to jump quickly to NBC News senior national security correspondent [3:11] Courtney Kuby. Courtney, what did you hear from the president there about militarily what the United [3:16] States plans to do? Yeah, there were two things that really stood out to me. One was when he said [3:21] that the U.S. hit Iran much harder than Iran did. Now, of course, he's referring to Iran firing missiles [3:28] and drones at three commercial ships around the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. The U.S. military, [3:32] though, he's right. They responded at a much larger scale than Iran going after those three ships. [3:39] The U.S. striking at least 80 targets in Iran. And keep in mind, Christine, 80 targets doesn't [3:46] necessarily mean 80 munitions. There could have been multiple bombs and multiple missiles fired [3:50] at each of those 80 targets. It was a tremendously, a much bigger response or retaliatory action by [3:59] the U.S. military than what we have seen them in the past when there have been these back and forth [4:04] over the Strait of Hormuz. Another thing I was really struck by here is President Trump, since this war [4:09] began in late February, he has repeatedly changed the goalposts of what the U.S. wants to accomplish [4:16] strategically with Iran. And today, he said that there is only one goal here, that the U.S. only has [4:22] one goal with respect to Iran, and that is to ensure that they don't have a nuclear weapon. Well, [4:26] that is a real departure from what we have heard. Yes, he has talked about the goal of Iran not having [4:32] a nuclear weapon. It's still not really clear how that has been accomplished. He repeated, of course, [4:36] that the U.S. struck three of those nuclear sites. That was now more than a year ago. [4:41] There wasn't a lot of military action against the nuclear sites during this war over the last [4:47] several months this year. But notably, he didn't go back to that very first night, the five objectives [4:54] that the president laid out on the first night of the U.S. and Israel striking in Iran. It was not [5:00] only to ensure they don't have a nuclear weapon, but also to ensure that their ballistic missile [5:03] program was destroyed, to ensure that the proxies could no longer cause trouble and danger in the [5:10] region, to ensure that the Iranian Navy was completely destroyed, and also, notably, to set [5:16] conditions so the Iranian people could rise up and overthrow the current regime. He did talk about [5:23] the now regime in Iran. He described them somewhat inexplicably as the level three regime. But once [5:31] again, he didn't say that he was interested in going forward with some sort of an agreement. He [5:37] said, I'm not sure I want to make a deal with them. Let's just finish the job. So, Christine, [5:42] what we should take out of this is it's not really clear whether the U.S. military is on the cusp of a [5:48] resumption of major combat operations or not. But it's definitely something that President Trump, [5:52] according to what he was saying today, seems to be considering. [5:55] I think that's important, Courtney, that you mentioned those core military and political [5:59] objectives in the very first hours of the war that now the president has saying all they wanted [6:04] to do was make sure that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon, and they have succeeded in that. [6:09] The flip side, though, for the Iranians is they now have shown that they do have a lever they [6:15] didn't have before, the ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz and drive up oil prices for the [6:20] entire world. And it has proven to be, you remember, going into this war, the big concerns [6:26] about Iran were the two biggest concerns were, of course, them having some sort of a restarting [6:30] some sort of a nuclear program that ultimately could get them a nuclear weapon. But even bigger [6:35] than that, military officials warned about their growing, expanding ballistic missile program [6:39] because it could not only threaten the region, it could threaten into Europe. And the worry was that [6:43] they could really hold the world hostage with a growing ballistic missile program. What they've learned is [6:49] those ballistic missiles almost aren't as powerful as what the leverage that they have shown to have [6:56] over the Strait of Hormuz. And so notably, there have been times, including one of the commercial [7:01] ships that was attacked this week, it was attacked by a small drone. They launched off a fleet of them, [7:06] the U.S. military fired down a number of them, but one of those drones got through. And it proves that [7:11] not only do they need to be able to fire at these ships in the Strait of Hormuz to really shut down [7:16] commercial traffic. They just need to have the threat there, Christine. [7:19] We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the [7:24] NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.