On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced that the United States had already achieved one of its primary objectives in the strikes on Iran. “I had one goal,” the president said, “and that is to eliminate Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon.”
He added, “They will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained.” However, there is no clear evidence indicating that the U.S. or Israel successfully destroyed Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel.
Trump justified the military action by claiming that Iran had massive nuclear ambitions that could threaten the United States. On February 28, when the operations began, the president argued that the strikes were necessary because Iran had “attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.”
NOW – Trump on Iran: “Again, we have had regime change. Now regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal.” pic.twitter.com/GRpqfsfTZV
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 31, 2026
According to The New York Times, the U.S. and Israel have been planning to attack Isfahan and Natanz, where most of Iran’s near-bomb-grade stockpiles are stored. Although the sites were hit during U.S. airstrikes last June, Iran has regained access to Isfahan. However, reports indicate that neither the U.S. nor Israel has successfully removed the vast majority of fuel stored at the site.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said two weeks ago, “We have seen no evidence” that the fuel left the site before or after last year’s attack. In an interview with CBS News, Grossi added, “One cannot deny that this has really rolled back the program significantly. But my impression is that once the military effort comes to an end, we will still inherit a number of major issues that have been at the center of all this.”
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just posted a video of MASSIVE explosions in Isfahan, Iran following what’s believed to be U.S.-Israeli airstrikes
We clearly hit something pretty big… pic.twitter.com/3rg7aGkeEF
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 31, 2026
He further added that the U.S.-Israeli joint strikes have hit some sites, but they had been “relatively marginal.” According to The New York Times, the administration has been debating sending in Special Operations Forces to seize the fuel, which would be one of the riskiest raids. Isfahan, hundreds of miles inland, is guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also known as the I.R.G.C.
Last week, officials said that Trump has yet to make a decision about the operations, as they could result in massive American and Israeli casualties. According to The Times, the president’s top aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are giving him the space to declare victory and end the conflict.
On Tuesday, the president suggested that he might leave the rest to his successors and pull back. “In a fairly short period of time we’ll be finished. They will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years, and when they are ready, maybe in a long time from now, able to do a nuclear weapon, you’ll have a president that will be like me, and that he will go there and he’ll knock the hell out of them again,” he said.
