Trump Lacerates Reporter Asking Him To Publicly Reveal His Plans On Striking Iran

Pressed by a reporter to publicly reveal his plans regarding a possible American strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities, President Donald Trump cracked up people around him on Wednesday morning with a response lacerating the media’s self-absorbed attitude toward matters of national security.

“You haven’t answered questions about whether you are moving closer or you believe the U.S. is moving closer to striking Iranian nuclear facilities. Where is your mindset on that?” a reporter asked.

“I can’t say that, right? You don’t seriously think I’m going to answer that question,” Trump fired back. He turned to the men behind him who were at the White House to install new flagpoles, asking rhetorically, “Will you strike the Iranian nuclear component and what time exactly, sir? Sir, when you strike it, will you please inform us so we can be there and watch?” Trump’s sarcastic response evoked laughter.

He turned back to the reporter. “I mean, you don’t know that I’m even gonna do it,” he declared. “You don’t know; I may do it; I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do.” Then he adopted. more serious tone, saying, “I can tell you this: Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before?’ All this death and destruction. I said to people, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You could have had a country.’”

“It’s very sad to watch this; I’ve never seen anything like it,” he remarked. “You know, everyone thought it was going to be the reverse. I didn’t think so. And I was telling them, you gotta do something; you gotta negotiate. And at the end, last minute, they said, ‘No, we’re not gonna do that.’ And then they got hit.”

“Remember 60 days?” he recalled of his ultimatum that Iran had 60 days to negotiate a deal with the U.S. “And then came — 61’s going to become a very famous number. That was one hell of a hit, that first hit. That was one hell of a hit.”

He spoke of the Iranian regime’s intransigence, saying, “Not sustainable, to be honest,” adding, “It ended on the first night.”

Q: Is the US moving closer to striking Iranian nuclear facilities?

TRUMP: I may do it, I may not do it. Nobody knows what I'm going to do. Iran's got a lot of trouble. pic.twitter.com/33jiLd3eSf

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2025