Speaking to reporters at the White House, President Trump laid out an interesting stance: if the U.S. and Iran ever strike a deal, he’d actually be open to meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. But he also made one thing crystal clear—Washington doesn’t necessarily need a deal to get its hands on Iran’s enriched uranium.
At first, he played it down, saying he wasn’t really looking for a face-to-face with Khamenei. But he quickly added that if a deal actually happens, a meeting isn’t off the table. He stressed that he didn’t bring it up himself, but others have floated the idea. His bottom line? “If it ever comes down to it, I’ll handle it with the respect it deserves,” he said.
When asked whether Iran taking out American troops would cross a major red line and reignite hostilities, Trump didn’t sugarcoat it. “That would absolutely be enough reason to act,” he stated. “Let’s be real—if they actually take out our soldiers, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to respond.”
On the uranium issue, Trump was pretty straightforward: the U.S. doesn’t need a diplomatic agreement to secure it. “If we decide to go after it, I highly doubt they could stop us,” he noted. “But honestly, it’s not even necessary right now since it’s already been buried and sealed away.” He also pointed out that the U.S. Space Force is keeping a tight watch on the ruined nuclear facilities where that high-enriched uranium is stored. “If anyone gets too close, we’ll take whatever steps are needed,” he warned.
He also pulled back the curtain on a past contingency: the U.S. actually considered sending troops into Iran just to dig up the stockpiled uranium. But after running the numbers, Trump concluded that a full-scale extraction mission would just be way too massive and carry too much risk to be practical.
