Trump Says US Will ‘Take Out’ Pickaxe Mountain If Iran Doesn’t Make a Deal

President Donald Trump said on July 28 that the U.S. military would have to “take out” Iran’s suspected nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain if the regime doesn’t make a deal.

Trump told “Fox & Friends” on July 28 that the United States had the “greatest cameras in the world” focused on Pickaxe Mountain due to the Space Force’s advanced technology.

U.S. officials have indicated that Iran could have stored nuclear centrifuges at the suspected nuclear site, which is fortified beneath a mountain. Trump has said that the United States could launch additional strikes against Iran, including an attack on Pickaxe Mountain, despite pausing strikes against the regime over the weekend.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies previously assessed that Iran’s construction at Pickaxe Mountain had accelerated by October 2025. It said this could indicate that the facility had expanded to include nuclear capabilities that were damaged by the U.S. military’s first wave of strikes in June 2025, which involved B-2 stealth bombers.

Senior Israeli officials told Epoch Magazine Israel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would present Trump with intelligence on Iran’s secret development of the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs during their meeting on July 28.

Trump was asked on Tuesday about reports that Netanyahu was planning to discuss Iran’s activity at Pickaxe Mountain with him.

“Well, I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump told “Fox & Friends,” adding that the United States already knows what is happening at Pickaxe Mountain.

Trump said that Iran’s activity at the suspected nuclear facility was “not a big problem” for the United States. “We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal,” he said.

The U.S. military carried out strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan in June 2025 during Operation Midnight Hammer. While Tehran has denied that its nuclear program was for military purposes, Trump has made the regime’s nuclear program the central issue in peace talks.

The president said on July 21 that the United States would likely be striking Iran’s suspected nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain “pretty soon” and “very heavily.”

“If we don’t make a deal, we’ll take it out very easily,” Trump reiterated on Tuesday.

The president said that there were “competing factions” in the United States, with some people wanting him to intensify strikes against Iran and others wanting him to make a deal with Tehran. It would already take Iran many years to rebuild from the damage caused by U.S. military strikes, he said.

Trump told “Fox & Friends” that he believed the United States was in a very strong position and that Iran knew he could have the U.S. military target the country’s power plants and bridges. He said that most of Iran’s bridges could be destroyed in two hours and most of the power plants could be destroyed in a single day.

Trump reiterated on July 28 that Iran could not be allowed to obtain or develop a nuclear weapon. Iran had “agreed to that essentially,” he said, but added that the ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran needed to formalize the agreement.

Trump also addressed Iran’s statement on July 27 that it did not ask for peace talks to resume following a pause in military strikes. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that reports of Iran requesting negotiations were fabricated and that the regime maintained control of the Strait of Hormuz despite nearly two weeks of U.S. military strikes.

“For some reason, we can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion, and they’ll come out and say, ‘We’re not talking,’ or ‘We didn’t discuss nuclear.’ Well, that’s all we discuss, because they’ll never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.