President Donald Trump on Monday used a White House health care affordability event as an occasion to mount a sweeping defense of his administration’s military campaign against Iran, pushing back hard against a reporter’s suggestion that nothing had been achieved from the conflict and declaring that the United States had “totally destroyed” Iran’s military infrastructure — leaving the country, in his words, without a navy or an air force and decades away from full recovery.
Speaking to reporters during a question-and-answer session following the Healthcare Affordability Event at the White House on May 18, Trump was pressed on whether other nations were simply dangling the prospect of a peace deal to slow American military action, with nothing concrete to show for it. He rejected that framing in blunt terms. “A lot has come into fruition,” Trump said. “We were taking a country that was going to have a nuclear weapon and largely destroyed its military. They have no navy or air force. We can leave right now and it would take them 25 years to rebuild. The last thing they are thinking about is nuclear.”
Trump’s claim was a direct reference to Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched on February 28, 2026, which targeted Iranian military installations, government sites, and senior leadership — including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening strikes. Trump argued Monday that the campaign had been so thorough that Iranian leadership had been eliminated at multiple levels. “We have totally destroyed their military. Their leadership. The leaders are gone. At the first level, second level, we are dealing with half of the third level,” he said. “I think we made a lot of progress.”
The president also sought to recast the origins of the military campaign in economic terms, arguing that the decision to confront Iran was made against the backdrop of what he described as a roaring American economy. “We have the greatest economy ever,” Trump said. “The stock market had a brand-new high. We had 50,000 on the Dow. 7,000 on the S&P. People said it couldn’t be done.” He described calling Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick into the Oval Office before the campaign began. “I said we are going to take a little excursion down to the Middle East and confront Iran because they are desperate to have a nuclear weapon and the only reason they want it is to use it,” Trump said. “I hate to do this because we are doing so well. But this is the most important thing we can do. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump described the military’s execution of the campaign as having achieved a kind of total strategic dominance. “When we did that, we were met with a little force and we ended up destroying it,” he said. “We now have a tremendous steel wall where no boats are able to get through” — a reference to the U.S. naval blockade currently enforced in the waters around the Strait of Hormuz. Since the ceasefire took effect in April, the Strait has remained effectively closed, with the Council on Foreign Relations noting in late April that traffic there had come to a near-complete halt, while both the United States and Iran have maintained competing blockades.
Independent assessments of Iran’s military capacity paint a more complex picture than Trump’s characterization of total destruction. The New York Times estimated that roughly 40 percent of Iran’s pre-war drone arsenal and approximately 60 percent of its missile launcher capabilities remained intact as of late April, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Iran has continued to launch sporadic drone and missile attacks, including strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan targets, and has rejected multiple U.S. peace proposals, most recently a 45-day ceasefire framework introduced by Pakistan in early April. Iran instead issued its own counter-proposal demanding war reparations, an end to U.S.-Israeli attacks, and international recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite those complications, Trump conveyed optimism Monday about the prospect of a diplomatic resolution. He said he had been contacted by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and several other countries requesting that the United States hold off on a planned major military strike scheduled for the following day. “I was called by these three countries plus others, and they are dealing directly with our people,” Trump said. “There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out.” He added that his preference remained a non-military resolution. “If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I would be really happy.”