CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — President Donald Trump on Sunday laid out in stark and specific terms exactly how the United States intends to deal with Iran’s buried stockpile of highly enriched uranium, presenting two paths — one diplomatic, one military — and making clear that the end result would be the same either way: American personnel and American equipment entering Iran’s nuclear sites and removing the material.
Speaking to NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker during an interview conducted Friday at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Trump described a binary outcome from which he said there was no deviation. “If we make a deal, we’ll go together — it’ll be our equipment — we’ll take it out and destroy it,” Trump said. “If we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly, and we’ll wait until we do that before we go.” The statement, delivered as the conflict between the United States and Iran reached its 100th day, amounted to the most explicit public articulation yet of Washington’s physical plan for the nuclear stockpile that has sat buried and inaccessible beneath the rubble of Iran’s shattered nuclear infrastructure since the opening strikes of the war.
What Remains Buried and Where
The stakes underlying Trump’s two-path declaration are considerable. Before the U.S. and Israeli strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites — Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow — the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Iran held a stockpile of roughly 440 kilograms, or approximately 970 pounds, of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. If enriched further, that quantity would be sufficient material for approximately 10 nuclear bombs, per the IAEA. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has said that while some of the stockpile may have been destroyed in the strikes, the material is “mainly” believed to be in underground tunnels at Iran’s nuclear facility in Isfahan.
Iran’s own Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS that the material remains inaccessible. “Our nuclear facilities were attacked, and everything is under the rubble,” he said. “For the time being, we have no program. We have no plan to recover them from under the rubbles.” He added that any future recovery would only take place under international supervision. Iran’s position has done little to resolve Washington’s central concern: that the material still exists, that it could eventually be recovered, and that no formal verification mechanism currently governs access to the sites.
Trump’s Plan: “Nuclear Dust” and B-2 Precision
In the interview, Trump pushed back on the suggestion that the bombing campaign had failed to fully neutralize the nuclear threat, arguing that the destruction wrought by American B-2 bombers had rendered the sites physically impassable. He described three mountains as having collapsed in on themselves over the facilities and said neither Iran nor any other country — save for China — possessed the equipment capable of excavating through the damage. “They can’t get it, no matter what,” he said. “It would take weeks — weeks of digging.”
Trump also described the surveillance apparatus the United States has placed over those sites, saying that space-based cameras operated by the U.S. Space Force could resolve fine detail from orbit and were monitoring the locations continuously. “If anybody went there with any digging mechanism, any truck, any tractors, anything — anybody went there — we would know,” he said. “We will take care of it.” The combination — physical inaccessibility compounded by constant overhead surveillance — formed the basis for Trump’s confidence that the stockpile, which he has taken to calling “nuclear dust,” could be controlled regardless of what Iran chose to do next.
The Military Briefing Behind the Statement
Trump’s comments on Sunday did not arrive without precedent inside the government. The U.S. Department of Defense briefed Trump on a comprehensive military plan to deploy ground forces into Iran to recover approximately 1,000 pounds of highly enriched uranium currently buried beneath damaged nuclear facilities near Isfahan and Natanz. The material, enriched to roughly 60 percent purity, was previously stored in fortified underground tunnel complexes.
The complex plan, which came at Trump’s request, would involve flying in excavation equipment and building a runway for cargo planes to transport the radioactive material out of Iran. The plan was briefed to the president along with its significant operational risks. Administration officials had also recently presented Iran with a 15-point proposal to end the war, reportedly demanding among other things that Tehran relinquish its highly enriched uranium. Former deputy assistant secretary of defense and retired CIA and Marine officer Mick Mulroy described the scale of what such a mission would entail. “This would be one of, if not the largest, most complicated special operations in history,” Mulroy said. “It’s a major risk to the force.”
Two Paths, One Destination
What Trump articulated Sunday was a framework that made the physical retrieval of Iran’s nuclear material not contingent on a deal but simply on the timing and conditions surrounding it. Under the diplomatic scenario he described, the United States and Iran would cooperate — American equipment and personnel entering sites in a post-agreement environment, with the two countries technically at peace. Under the military scenario, the same entry would occur, but only after a resumed and intensified campaign had further degraded whatever remained of Iran’s ability to resist. “We’ll be friendly,” Trump said of the deal path. “In other words, we would have made a deal, and we will be at peace, and we will go with them or without them, but we won’t have people shooting at us.”
The either-way quality of Trump’s formulation aligned with what had emerged from ongoing Pakistan-mediated negotiations. A draft memorandum of understanding in discussions between the two sides includes commitments from Iran to never pursue nuclear weapons and to negotiate over a suspension of its uranium enrichment program and the removal of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. According to two sources with knowledge of the talks, Iran gave the U.S. through the mediators verbal commitments about the scope of the concessions it was willing to make on suspending enrichment and giving up the nuclear material.
Sticking Points and the Enrichment Clause
Trump revealed in the interview that the language of any agreement governing Iran’s nuclear prohibitions had been a source of friction in the talks. He said a draft clause barred Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but that he personally had insisted the language be expanded to foreclose acquisition as well. “What happens if they go out and purchase, they acquire?” Trump said. “I want to put — if they buy or purchase or acquire, you’ve got to have that in there, too.” He said Iran had initially resisted the broader language before conceding.
The broader negotiations, mediated by Pakistan, cover issues including freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, reconstruction terms, sanctions relief, and a long-term peace agreement. Trump said Sunday that he had no intention of unfreezing Iranian assets or lifting sanctions until after an agreement had been honored and verified. “It comes after,” he said. “If they behave and we start talking.”
The No-Sanctions-Upfront Contrast With Obama
Trump used the interview to draw a sharp contrast between his approach and what he characterized as the financial concessions made by the Obama administration under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He alleged that the prior agreement had provided Iran with approximately $1.7 billion in cash flown on a Boeing 757 with the seats removed, along with tens of billions of additional dollars in sanctions relief — a characterization consistent with the documented payment of funds that had been held in escrow under the JCPOA framework. The U.S. and Iran have yet to reach a peace deal or formally address Iran’s nuclear materials, despite signals from Trump that talks are progressing. Trump insisted the current terms represented a categorically different arrangement. “This is much better,” he said. “Mine is a wall.”
Israel’s Concern and the Uranium Question
Israel’s main concern has been that any narrow interim agreement would extend the ceasefire, open the Strait of Hormuz, and gradually ease sanctions on Iran, while not addressing the most critical points for Israel — Tehran’s nuclear program and enriched uranium. The U.S. has continued to reassure Israel on the uranium issue. Trump acknowledged disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the conduct of operations in Lebanon, saying he favored a more surgical approach to Hezbollah, but described his overall relationship with Netanyahu as close. He did not frame the enriched uranium question as subject to Israeli veto, but instead returned repeatedly to his own declared red line: no nuclear capability remaining in Iranian hands, through any means necessary.
“Either Way, We Win”
Throughout the interview, Trump returned to a formulation that treated the diplomatic and military paths less as opposites than as two routes to an identical destination. He said he was moving faster than any previous American engagement in the region, noting that Vietnam lasted 19 years against his three months, and predicted that oil prices would fall sharply and stock markets would extend their record run once the conflict reached its conclusion. “As soon as that’s complete, gasoline prices are going to drop like a rock,” he said.
The practical reality underlying Trump’s confidence, as outlined across more than an hour of interview, was that the United States had demonstrated the ability to destroy Iran’s military leadership, obliterate its air force and navy, suppress its anti-aircraft systems, and maintain satellite-level surveillance over its most sensitive nuclear sites — all within the span of 100 days. Whether the outcome was a signed agreement or a resumed military campaign, Trump said the physical removal of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile was not a question of if but of under what conditions American personnel would arrive to carry it out. “Either way,” he said, “we win.”