Trump says US did not start Iran war, vows ‘total victory’
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) said the United States did not start the war with Iran, asserting that Tehran had been waging war against Washington since 1979. Speaking at the 2026 National Veterans Day Ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump said the United States had fought back against Iran and claimed that American military operations had significantly damaged the country’s capabilities. Iran has been waging war in America since 1979.
Defending his administration’s military campaign, he said the US wanted to secure a “total victory” rather than settle for a partial outcome. This should have been taken care of a long time ago,” Trump said. “America did not start a war with Iran.
We want to make sure we have a total victory, not a 93 per cent victory. It’ll take them 25 years to rebuild back what we have destroyed. Referring to the US military’s use of B-2 bombers against Iran’s nuclear programme, Trump said Washington had prevented Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon .
We fought back and we seriously fought back and we won. And hopefully we won’t have to destroy any more of that country.
Defending his administration’s approach to the conflict in West Asia, the US President said Washington had responded militarily and emerged victorious, but stressed that the objective was to achieve a complete outcome. We’ve got a lot of work to do to put it back,” Trump said. “Under this administration and it was about time somebody fought back. All of us fought back. It’s just a question of, wouldn’t we want to end it? It’s going to be total.