Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, the president took his first extended Q&A on the military campaign launched by the U.S. on Saturday morning. <\/p>\n
Trump gave no indication of who the U.S. hoped would assume leadership of Iran\u2019s government in the days to come, explaining that many potential candidates had been killed in the first round of strikes. He also admitted that his actions could result in a leader with even more fervent anti-U.S. sentiment coming to power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess the worst case is we do this and then somebody takes over who is as bad as the previous person,\u201d Trump admitted. \u201cThat could happen.”<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the people we had in mind [to lead Iran] are dead,\u201d the president continued. \u201cPretty soon we\u2019re not going to know anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump took questions on his decision to launch strikes against Iran on Tuesday (AP)<\/p>\n
The U.S., along with Israel, began targeted strikes on Iranian targets early Saturday morning. Those strikes are now confirmed to have killed Iran\u2019s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei.<\/p>\n
In the days that followed, the White House and GOP have faced questions about what this means for both the U.S. and Iran, including whether America is now involved in an extended war in the Middle East and who the Trump administration hopes will take over the Iranian government in the wake of a devastating campaign intended to decapitate the regime and its military.<\/p>\n
Top Trump administration officials have offered differing explanations for the necessity of the attacks, which were reportedly authorized only a day after top U.S. negotiators met with Iranian diplomats in Geneva. Among the reasons for launching the strikes have been the supposed resumption of Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons development, the imminent threat supposedly posed by its non-nuclear ballistic missile program, and the negotiators\u2019 refusal to address non-nuclear weapons and support for terrorist groups like the Houthis in Geneva.<\/p>\n
Trump offered yet another explanation on Tuesday: He believed that the Iranian\u2019s planned to launch their own attack first. He gave no evidence for this.<\/p>\n
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Donald Trump met Germany\u2019s Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Tuesday (Getty)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first,\u201d said the president. \u201cThey were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first, I felt strongly about that.\u201d <\/p>\n
The answer came in response to a reporter\u2019s question about the claim that Israeli officials had forced Trump\u2019s hand by informing him of their own plans to launch strikes against Iran. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have great negotiators, great people, people who do this very successfully. And based on the way that the negotiations was going, I think that they were going to attack first. And I didn’t want that to happen,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready and we were ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the meeting, Trump also lashed out at two NATO allies, Spain and the U.K. The president attacked the former for preventing U.S. forces from using Spanish military bases for the Iran war effort, and the latter for a similar issue with the Diego Garcia base in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n
Referring to the U.K.\u2019s Keir Starmer,<\/a> Trump remarked twice that the prime minister was \u201cno Winston Churchill,\u201d telling reporters: \u201cI will say the U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease; having to do with, perhaps, indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before. What\u2019s that all about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n White House officials who spoke to reporters on Tuesday explained that negotiators who met with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva last Thursday came prepared to address both the Iranian nuclear program and other aspects of conflict between Washington and Tehran, including the broader threat that Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles pose across the region.<\/p>\n According to those officials, Iranian officials who were present at that meeting indicated that future nuclear enrichment capabilities were a red line, an \u201cinalienable right\u201d which Iranian officials would not surrender.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said to them that you may have that if you may deem that to be your right, we deem our right the ability to stop that, and we’re going to stop it, and we’re not going to allow it,\u201d claimed a senior Trump administration figure.<\/p>\n![\"Video](\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/img\/logo-white-out.svg\"){kind=logo}
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