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WASHINGTON — On the night he won his 2024 presidential comeback bid, Donald Trump reminded his supporters that he never started a war during his first term and pledged not to start one over the next four years either."They said, 'He will start a war.' I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars," Trump said during his Nov. 6, 2024 victory speech, reciting a line he used frequently on the campaign trail.Yet now, as the U.S. remains in a months-long conflict with Iran, Trump is denying he made the pledge, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker in a contentious interview that aired June 7, "I didn't guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?"Trump added that military action against Iran was necessary to ensure it doesn't have a nuclear weapon. "I have to do this country, this world, the Middle East, Israel, everybody a favor. You have Iran. They're going to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said.The president also sought to differentiate the U.S. actions he's ordered in Iran ‒ which he said he doesn't consider a war ‒ with the nation's so-called "endless wars," referring to past U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq and other places."When you say I promised, I didn't promise anything," Trump said to Welker. "I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months."'Under Trump, we will have no more wars,' Trump said during campaignWhile Trump often campaigned against "endless wars" in his 2024 race against former President Joe Biden and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, he also vowed not to start "wars" in general without specificizing the type. In contrast, he characterized Democratic opponents as eager to start new wars."They like a war. The love wars. You know, they love killing people. It's so wonderful," Trump said at a June 28, 2024 campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia. "You know, I'm the only president in many, many decades that didn't start a war."Trump framed the election as a race between "STRENGTH or WEAKNESS, COMPETENCE or INCOMPETENCE, peace and prosperity or war and no war" in a June 29, 2024 post on Truth Social.In his July 18, 2024 speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump declared, "With our victory in November, the years of war, weakness, and chaos will be over.""I kept you out of wars. We had no wars with Donald Trump as your president," Trump said one week after the convention during a July 24, 2024 rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Days later, at a July 27 rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Trump said: "Remember when crooked Hillary Clinton used to say, 'He's going to get us into a war. Look at him. Look at his rhetoric.' I said, 'No, my rhetoric is going to keep us out of wars.'""Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, and we will have prosperity and peace for all," Trump later said during a Aug. 17 speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.Trump's 'red line' for renewing attacks on IranTrump's denial of his war pledge came during a combative interview that ended with Trump abruptly ending his conversation when Welker challenged him over baseless claims that the California primary election was rigged.Trump said he would renew attacks on Iran if he didn't think negotiations were progressing, but said he's satisfied with the talks."My red line would be if I think I wasn't going to make a deal, or if I wasn't going to make a deal fast enough," Trump said when asked what would make him restart military action. "We're having very good negotiations with the people that are leading the country now."Trump has said repeatedly that his administration is nearing a peace deal with Iran but an agreement has yet to follow. The war dragging out is a political risk for Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as Americans express anxiety about high gas prices caused by the conflict.Renewed strikes between Israel and Iran on June 8 may have complicated the path to a deal as the two sides traded strikes for the first time since April. Iran later announced it is suspending the military operations.In a phone interview with Fox News on June 7, Trump criticized Israel's earlier strikes on Beirut, saying he was "not happy about it." Trump urged Iran to "get back to the table and make a deal," adding that the attack was "certainly not going to help negotiations."Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
