Trump Rules Out Use of Nuclear Weapons in Iran War

President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out using a nuclear weapon in the war with Iran.

He told reporters in the Oval Office that the United States has already greatly weakened the Islamic Republic with conventional weapons, declaring that “a nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”

PBS NewsHour correspondent Liz Landers asked the president whether nuclear weapons might be used in the war, which the president said was a “stupid” question. 

“Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve totally and in a very conventional way decimated them without it?” Trump said. “I wouldn’t use it.”

Two days ago, Trump extended a two-week ceasefire with Tehran, calling the Iranian leadership “seriously fractured.” He also cited a request from Pakistan’s prime minister as another reason for extending the ceasefire. 

In an April 17 Truth Social post, Trump said that Iran had agreed to surrender enriched uranium buried by last summer’s strikes on an underground base. 

“The U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B-2 bombers—no money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form,” he wrote.

The president has stated this numerous times. 

“There won’t be any nuclear weapons,” he said. “Iran has agreed to that.”

On April 8, Trump said the United States would work with Tehran’s new leadership to dig up and remove the buried fissile material.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine told reporters earlier this month that more than 11,000 targets had been struck in the war, and that Iran’s drone arsenal and weapons stockpiles were “mostly depleted.”

They also said that 150 Iranian warships had been destroyed and every submarine sunk. Caine noted the U.S. force “remains postured and ready to resume major combat operations at literally a moment’s notice.” 

Hegseth has told Iran to “choose wisely” and offered Tehran “a prosperous future, a golden bridge,” if it chose to stand down.

The White House has framed Operation Epic Fury as destroying Iran’s ballistic-missile arsenal, ending its support to “terrorist proxies,” and assuring the regime “never acquires a nuclear weapon.” 

Operation Epic Fury started in March 2026, nine months after the June 2025 strike package, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, in which B-2 bombers hit the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites.

Trump, who said in late March that the war would be over in two to three weeks, said at the time those facilities had been “obliterated,” which the White House maintains.