U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out using nuclear weapons against Iran, a notable pullback after months of increasingly alarming threats that had raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict.
“No, I wouldn’t use it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday when asked whether he would consider a nuclear strike on the country.
The statement comes after one of the most turbulent periods of U.S.-Iran relations in recent memory. As recently as last week, Trump had warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” threatening to destroy Iran’s power plants, bridges, oil wells and water desalination plants if Tehran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz and agree to a deal.
Just days ago, Trump told a Fox News reporter that “the whole country is going to get blown up” and warned in a phone call with a PBS reporter that “lots of bombs will start going off” if no deal was reached before a ceasefire deadline expired.
The escalation had been building for months. In June 2025, the Trump administration launched airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, with Trump declaring that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “completely and totally obliterated.” However, the Pentagon’s assessment was that the strikes had only set Iran’s nuclear programme back by months, not destroyed it.
Tensions spiralled further after a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. in December, when Trump renewed threats to attack Iran if it tried to rebuild its nuclear or missile programme.
By early 2026, the U.S. had launched a second military campaign dubbed Operation Epic Fury, aimed at obliterating Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, annihilating its navy, and ensuring Tehran never acquired a nuclear weapon.
Trump had also boasted that a naval blockade was “absolutely destroying Iran” and declared it would not be lifted until a deal was struck.
Thursday’s remarks represent Trump’s clearest signal yet that despite the scale of military action taken against Iran, he does not intend to cross the nuclear threshold. He did not elaborate on what other military or diplomatic options remained on the table.
Negotiations between Washington and Tehran remain ongoing, with both sides yet to reach a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme.
