President Donald Trump is dismissing the idea that launching the war with Iran this year betrayed his refrain of 'No new wars' that he made repeatedly during his campaign for the White House. In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Trump said he 'didn't guarantee' there would be no wars if he were back in office.
Trump on Iran Conflict
'First of all, I didn't guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?' Trump said. He also defended plans for a now-scrapped $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president and repeated his baseless claims of mass fraud in California's drawn-out vote count from Tuesday's primary. The interview ended abruptly when he became frustrated with pushback from NBC's Kristen Welker.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly cast his Democratic opponents as warmongers and said he was a president who started 'no new wars' and would bring an era of peace. However, in the NBC interview taped Friday in Wisconsin, Trump said as a candidate, 'I didn't promise anything.'
'I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months,' he said of the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28. Trump claimed he was 'doing the world a service' and 'doing our country a service' because he had to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Elsewhere in the interview, Trump repeated a contradictory message, stating that U.S. strikes last year 'obliterated' Iranian nuclear sites.
He also defended his decision in his first term to withdraw from Democratic President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, an agreement he has heavily criticized, without negotiating the 'better deal' he promised. 'It takes years to do these things,' Trump said.
Baseless Claims of California Fraud
California's notoriously prolonged vote count has been a magnet for election conspiracy theories, and Trump since Tuesday's election has claimed without evidence that Democrats are rigging the election. The Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said Friday that his office had opened 'multiple election fraud investigations.'
Late-tallied Democratic-leaning mail ballots have eaten into the vote totals for Trump's preferred candidates for governor and Los Angeles mayor. While Trump has often said that changes to vote totals as late ballots are counted are a sign of fraud, they are merely a reflection of a slow vote-counting process. In the interview, Trump kept claiming it was a sign of 'cheating' and 'a rigged election,' growing increasingly frustrated as Welker pressed him for evidence.
'All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look,' Trump said. 'But that's not evidence,' Welker responded. 'And I listen. And I listen to people. And let's see what happens,' Trump replied.
'Anti-Weaponization' Fund
Trump defended plans that his Department of Justice said it has now abandoned to create a $1.776 billion 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' as part of a settlement to resolve Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that the department was scrapping the plan after it was paused by a judge and after both Democrats and some Republicans expressed concerns about the fund's lack of oversight and the possibility of payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
Trump told NBC he thought the fund was 'a great idea' and that he would be 'disappointed' if it were not approved. When asked if he thought people who attacked police officers on Jan. 6 should get a payout, Trump said, 'I wouldn't be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.' He then made unfounded and false claims about the riot and those who stormed the Capitol. Trump granted a sweeping pardon on his first day back in office in January 2025 to the more than 1,500 people prosecuted over Jan. 6.
Abrupt End to Interview
The NBC interview was conducted in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, before Trump was set to speak at a roundtable event with farmers. The interview was repeatedly interrupted as waves of heavy rain fell on the metal roof of the barn where the taping took place, making it difficult at times to hear. At the end, Welker pressed Trump on the settlement fund and his claims about the California election. Trump raised his voice and began calling Welker and the media 'crooked,' attacking her credibility and complaining about what he called 'the fake, dirty press.'
As Welker tried to switch subjects, Trump continued and there was cross talk between the two. Trump ended the interview, saying, 'Let's call it quits.' He took off his microphone, telling Welker, 'Thank you, darling. Have a good time.' He said he had given the interview enough time, stood up, and walked away. Welker said during the broadcast that she spoke to Trump on Saturday and he agreed the rain had caused complications and said he would do another interview in the future.
