RUTHFULLY YOURS

REPORTER: Can you answer whether you are moving closer to striking Iranian nuclear facilities?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can’t say that. You don’t think I will answer that?

“Will you strike the Iranian nuclear component, and when exactly, sir? Would you please inform us so we can be there and watch?”

You don’t know that I’m going to even do it. I may do it—may not. Nobody knows what I am going to do. I can tell you this: Iran has a lot of trouble. They want to negotiate. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.’ It’s very sad to watch this. I’ve never seen anything like it. Everyone thought it would be the reverse. I didn’t think so. I was telling them you have to do something. You have to negotiate. At the last minute, they said, ‘We aren’t going to do that.’

And they got hit. Remember 60 days? 61 will become a very famous number. One hell of a first hit. One hell of a hit. Not sustainable, to be honest—it ended on the first night.

REPORTER: Is it too late now—?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Nothing is too late. The only ‘too late’ is Powell. Powell is too late. Too late, Powell.

REPORTER: Has Iran reached out to you?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yes. I said it’s very late, you know? I said it’s very late to be talking. I don’t know—there is a big difference between now and a week ago. Big difference.

REPORTER: (inaudible)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It’s about any—anybody. They even suggested they come to the White House. A big difference. But they suggested it. I can’t go now because of what’s going on. I had to come back early from the G-7; that was terrific in Canada—good people.

REPORTER: Is there a possibility next week or sooner—?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know how much longer it will go on. They are totally defenseless. They have no air defense whatsoever. Totally captured. We’ve totally captured the air.

REPORTER: You’ve been compassionate toward the Iranian people.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I know a lot of people from Iran—they’re incredible people: smart, energetic, etc. They can be difficult, but so can you. They are great, smart people. Those people are getting the hell beaten out of them now. It’s really a shame. It’s so stupid—like Russia and Ukraine. That would never have happened if I was president. You guys agree with that, right? Putin would never have done it. I spoke to him yesterday and he offered to help mediate. I said, ‘Do me a favor—mediate your own. Let’s mediate Russia first, okay? Then we can worry about this later.’ I think that will work out, too. So many people have been killed. Far more than have been reported in the Ukraine/Russia conflict. Many, many more. A building falls and they say nobody was hurt.

REPORTER: (inaudible)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Two very simple words: unconditional surrender. That means ‘I’ve had it. Okay, I give up. No more.’ Then we go—’all the nuclear stuff is over the place.’ They had bad intentions for forty years: ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ and anybody else they didn’t like. They were bullies—schoolyard bullies. Now they aren’t bullies anymore, but we’ll see what happens. Nothing is finished until it is finished. War is very complex—many bad things can happen; many turns are made. I wouldn’t say we’ve won anything yet. We sure as hell made a lot of progress. We’ll see—the next week will be big, maybe less. But is there anybody here who thinks it’s okay for a hostile, zealous country to have a nuclear weapon that could destroy twenty-five miles—or more—its dust blowing to other nations? We’ve been threatened by Iran for many years. Fifteen years ago, I was saying we cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon. I’ve been saying it for a long time.