When President Donald Trump went to war with Iran in February, he cited its supposedly imminent nuclear threat. But there was always a problem with that: He’d spent eight months asserting the program had already been “obliterated” last year.
Just two weeks before the war began, in fact, Trump claimed US and Israeli strikes in June 2025 had left Iran without even a “potential capability” for nukes.
Now, as Trump looks to extract himself from the highly unpopular war, he’s offering more confounding signals about the state of Iran’s nuclear threat.
After more than four months of war and major costs to the US and world economy — all geared towards the still-unfulfilled goals of obtaining Iran’s nuclear materials and a deal that keeps Tehran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon — Trump is suddenly suggesting none of that is even necessary.
He’s claiming the war is already a success because Iran has already been denuclearized.
