Trump says Iran ‘is not an endless war’ as conflict reaches 100 days

[0:00] One of your consistent campaign promises was no new wars, going all the way back to 2015. [0:07] Did you break that promise to the American people? [0:11] I had to stop a country, a very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon [0:18] because they'd use it. They'd blow up the world. They'd blow up the Middle East. They'd blow up [0:21] Israel. They'd come here. They'd blow up Europe. They're nuts, okay? They're crazy people. [0:26] I deal with them. And very high-strung people. They're crazy. And get along with them. I like them. [0:36] But you don't want to let them have a nuclear weapon. And I'm doing the world a service, [0:41] but I'm doing our country a service. It's America first. I'm doing our country a service. [0:48] Nice rain. It is raining hard. But the answer is good. Let's just keep going. [0:56] Let's keep going. Let's power through it, right? [0:58] Here, we paused nearly five minutes for the rain to pass and then picked up our conversation. [1:05] So you're saying you didn't break your promise, and yet, Mr. President, in your first term, [1:11] you held to that promise, and it was so fundamental to who you were as a candidate to a first-term [1:18] president. What changed? Because you insisted no new wars. [1:23] First of all, I didn't guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world? [1:28] I built our military. I inherited a terrible military. We had no equipment. We had nothing. [1:33] I built a tremendous military. Biden gave a lot of it away, but it's still a relatively small portion [1:38] compared to what I built. But you said it over and over again, Mr. President. [1:42] Why would I build a military? Now, I didn't want to use this, but I'm doing you and everybody else a big [1:48] favor. In the midst of the greatest stock market in history, in the midst of the most successful [1:53] country, because as you know, in the last term, we were a dead country, Kristen. I know you're a big [1:59] liberal or a big progressive. No, I'm just a journalist. We were a dead country. A year ago, [2:05] a couple of years ago, we were a dead country. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. [2:09] And at the all-time hottest point, which is probably now, believe it or not, we just had all brand new [2:14] stock market records today. But at the hottest point in the history of our country, I took Scott, [2:20] Howard. I took Pete. I took everybody into a room. I said, I have to do this country, [2:26] this world, the Middle East, Israel, everybody a favor. You have Iran. They're going to have [2:33] a nuclear weapon. Barack Hussein Obama signed the JCPOA. It was a horrible deal. Horrible deal. [2:41] Listen to me. It was a horrible deal. It was a path to them getting a nuclear weapon. They were [2:47] very close to having a nuclear weapon. I terminated the deal. Wait. Then I sent the B-2 bomber [2:52] in about nine, 10 months ago and they obliterated, totally obliterated the site and I saved it. [2:59] We had a choice. We could let them have a nuclear weapon or we could go along and have some beautiful [3:06] days. But they would have, you know, it's a judgment. They would have used the nuclear weapon. [3:10] And you know what? When people hear that whole scenario, when they hear me say, [3:16] Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon and they're crazy. They say you're doing the right thing. [3:23] I don't think it's an, I mean, you'll do polls because they're all fake polls anyway, especially [3:27] yours. But you do polls. I just won a big election. And the reason I won an election is people have [3:36] confidence and they have good judgment. I had to make a judgment. Do I want to go along and have a [3:41] country that's doing really well, but somebody is going to try and kill us? Or do I want to put [3:46] out that, that horrible threat? And I did. I put it out. I put it out for many, many years. Now I'm [3:54] going to put it out permanently. I'm going to do it either through negotiation where we're very close [3:59] 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 [4:06] very easy for me to do. That's actually the easier path. So when you say, I promised, I didn't promise [4:12] anything. I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for [4:18] three months. Much of it has been under the form, a pretty good form of ceasefire. The blockade has [4:24] been amazing. Our Navy is amazing. Our military is the best in the world. Hey, we took over a very [4:30] powerful country, Venezuela, a lot of soldiers, big, strong military. We took over Venezuela in a matter [4:37] of minutes. We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. Nobody's ever seen anything like [4:45] it. Now I'm going to finish it. But remember, you were in Vietnam 19 years because stupid people, [4:52] you were in so many different countries. Every war you were in for years. Look at, look at Iraq. [4:58] Look what you were. You were there for years. We're there for, listen, Kisten, we're there for a few [5:04] months. And the threat is largely over. Soon it will be over. But you cannot let Iran have a nuclear [5:11] weapon or they will blow you up.