President Donald Trump made a stunning new claim about Iran during a Fox News interview on Saturday, stating that 'we've actually left their military alone' after repeatedly asserting that the U.S. had completely destroyed Iran's military forces. Speaking to his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on her show 'My View,' Trump said, 'Their Navy is totally gone, 100%. Their Air Force is totally gone, 100%. Their military, we've sort of left it alone — because we think that their military is somewhat moderate. They have other people that aren't moderate. We've taken them out. We've taken different forms of leadership out.'
Contradictory Statements
Trump continued, 'We've actually left their military alone. People would be surprised to hear that. Because mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that for 40 years can never rebuild.' These remarks come after Trump boasted on multiple occasions in Truth Social posts that Iran had been 'totally defeated' by the U.S. and is 'no longer the Bully of the Middle East.' In a separate Truth Social post in March, Trump wrote, 'We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise,' before specifically claiming that Iran's Navy, Air Force, and air defenses had been annihilated. 'Their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time,' he added.
Admission on Iran Involvement
The president made another stunning claim during the Fox News interview, admitting to Lara Trump: 'We shouldn't have been in Iran.' He compared it to the Iraq War, saying, 'Look at what happened with Iraq. We did so bad, that was such a foolish thing, what we did. We shouldn't have been there in the first place, by the way.' Trump added, 'And we shouldn't have been in Iran. But Iran has the capability — if we didn't hit them with the B-2 bombers nine months ago, they would have a nuclear weapon right now, and it would be a whole different story.'
Ongoing Negotiations
Noting that 'there's no deal that's good enough,' on Friday, Trump reportedly sent back changes to the proposed deal with Iran after a meeting with advisers, officials said, continuing the seesaw of negotiations into another week. Watch Trump's Fox News appearance below. Skip to the 2:24 mark to hear his comments on Iran.
