US 'very nearly under threat,' Trump says
"The United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible, terrorist regime," President Donald Trump said Monday in his first public remarks since the strikes on Iran began Saturday.
Trump said Iran's nuclear program was obliterated in "Operation Midnight Hammer," the U.S. strikes on Iran in June 2025. He said the U.S. "warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location, because they were unable to use the ones we so powerfully blew up."
"But they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons," Trump said at the White House. "In addition, the regime's conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas. The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America."
"An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people," he said. "Our country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat."
