Trump told NBC News reporters Nicholas and Marquez that he launched the strikes because “They weren’t willing to stop their nuclear research. Trump administration officials said on Saturday that Iran was planning to strike the U.S. preemptively and thus posed an imminent threat. But then Trump told Scherer he had confidence that the Iranian people would launch an uprising against the Iranian government. Trump told the reporters he hoped Iran’s military forces would turn over their weapons to the Iranian people. ‘The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,’ Trump told me.

Source: New York Times March 02, 2026 07:32 UTC