U.S. President Donald Trump has compared the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, claiming the strikes ended the Iran-Israel war just as the atomic bombs ended World War II.
“This ended a war in a different way,” Trump said at the NATO Summit in The Hague.
Trump defended the strikes despite a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment suggesting Iran’s nuclear program was only delayed by a few months, not “obliterated” as the administration claimed. Trump dismissed the report as “preliminary” and “low-confidence.”
He blasted media outlets for reporting on the DIA’s findings, calling them disrespectful to U.S. pilots, and insisted the real damage was much worse:
“The intelligence says, ‘we don’t know’… I think we can take the ‘we don’t know’ and say it was very severe.”
Flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump also warned that Iran likely won’t return to its nuclear program. An Israeli nuclear agency reportedly assessed the Iranian program was set back by “many years.”
Political stakes are high for Trump, as his base is traditionally wary of foreign military action. His administration insists the strike aligns with his “America First” strategy to prevent a nuclear Iran without prolonged conflict.
Trump also announced that talks with Iran are expected next week to determine further steps on its nuclear ambitions.
Additionally, NATO countries agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, which Trump claimed as a foreign policy win.
